Sharing in Growth programme nets over £3bn for UK aerospace

The announcement was made at a Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) seminar opened by Secretary of State Greg Clark. Sharing in Growth is supported by the Regional Growth Fund and by more than £150 million in private investment.

The contracts secured thanks to Sharing in Growth include a £80 million six-year deal between Rolls-Royce Civil Aerospace and Glasgow-based Castle Precision Engineering which was also announced by Rolls-Royce chief executive Warren East.

Thanking Sharing in Growth for its support of Castle and some 60 other aerospace suppliers, Mr East said: “There is a national need for competitive and match-fit suppliers who are able to win work from companies like Rolls-Royce. What Castle has done is what we all do every day: look at our costs and how we can reduce them, look at how we increase the quality of what we do, and look at how – through clear leadership, technical and business process innovation – we can make our business more competitive and win more orders. Some of this we do ourselves, some of this we do with partners, including Government, and the Government’s funding of Sharing in Growth has made a significant difference to our supply chain, as well as to others in the aerospace sector.

“A competitive UK supply chain is at the heart of the delivery of a successful UK industrial strategy – without it we will be letting down those suppliers and the companies that depend on them. Sharing in Growth in an integral part of the UK’s industrial strategy.”

Colin Smith CBE, chair of the Aerospace Growth Partnership, a strategic partnership between government and industry, and president of ADS, also emphasised the importance of the UK nurturing a competitive aerospace sector.

He said: “The UK economy must maximise the benefit it takes from this sector, particularly from high value jobs and exports. Civil aerospace continues to grow at 5% per annum driven by global GDP. Competitive productivity, skills and capability are essential because worldwide competition on quality, cost, delivery and technology is incredibly fierce. Other people want to eat our lunch.

“Sharing in Growth is an integral part of the Aerospace Growth Partnership’s framework to achieve the sector’s growth ambition. To increase the UK’s share of the global market, we need investment in supply chain technology and infrastructure, but primarily in its leadership and operational capability.”

Among the companies presenting their successes were:

• Produmax, from Shipley, West Yorkshire, specialists in flight control components and assemblies, who have improved productivity by almost 40%, won three new customers and increased turnover by 55%.


• Amphenol Invotec, which has plants in Tamworth and Telford, manufacturing time critical and advanced technology PCBs, and who has secured more than £40 million in contracts.


• Winbro Group Technologies, headquartered in Coalville, Leicestershire, who manufacture non-conventional machine tools, and components for critical hot section of turbine engines, and have opened a new plant, creating new jobs.


• LPW Technology, who develop and process metal powders for Additive Manufacturing, from their brand new £20 million purpose built, metal powder manufacturing facility in Widnes.

Set up by industry in 2013, Sharing in Growth is endorsed by Airbus, BAE Systems, Boeing, Bombardier, GE, GKN, Leonardo, Lockheed Martin, MBDA, Rolls-Royce, Safran and Thales because it is helping the UK advanced manufacturing supply chain to become more competitive and win a larger share of global aerospace contracts, typically by addressing a 20% cost gap and targeting 50% productivity improvement.

There are 63 companies on the Sharing in Growth programme across the UK. Each company participates in a bespoke and intense training and business transformation programme which focuses on leadership, culture and operational capability delivered by SiG’s own 120 strong team of business coaches as well as a bank of world-leading experts including The University of Cambridge’s Institute for Manufacturing, Deloitte, Industry Forum and the National Physical Laboratory.

Sharing in Growth www.sig-uk.org