Welsh Government support set to boost local supply chains by £120m

Purolite is investing in a new high value manufacturing facility at its European HQ in Llantrisant secured with Welsh Government support.Edwina Hart

This will create and safeguard 55 jobs and provide a £120m boost for Welsh suppliers over the next five years.

The new state of the art facility will produce agarose based resins based on technology developed at Llantrisant, which is Purolite’s European R&D centre Centre of Excellence.  It will have an initial annual capacity of 100,000 litres.

Agarose resins are integral technology used by pharmaceutical developers in the manufacture of modern medicines targeting the treatment of cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and well know age related diseases.

For 35 years, Purolite a US based company has developed innovative technology used globally in chemical processing, pharmaceuticals (active pharmaceutical ingredients), mining, water purification and food and beverage processing.

The Welsh Government support of £575,000 was crucial in helping secure the project for Wales, due to strong competition from Purolite’s existing facilities in USA, China and Romania.

The local management team, with support from Economy Minister Edwina Hart, made the business case to manufacture the agarose based resins in Wales and utilise the skills and experience of the local workforce.

The investment by Purolite Ltd – a regionally important company – will create 19 new jobs and safeguard a further 36 highly skilled jobs that attract higher than average salaries. Currently 55 people work at Llantrisant.

The Minister added that it was anticipated that half of the construction costs of the new facility will be also spent with local building contractors.

A recent £2m investment in new lab infrastructure and equipment in Llantrisant along with R&D support by the Welsh Government’s SMARTCymru programme, backed by EU funds, enabled the company to develop this new agarose technology. A pilot plant for agarose production has been in operation for a year.

Purolite Ltd is wholly owned by Bro-Tech Ltd (UK) which is part of the Purolite Corporation in USA.

Economy Minister Edwina Hart said:

“This is a high value, strategically important investment for the Llantrisant site and for the advanced materials and manufacturing sector in Wales.

“I have visited the Llantrisant site and was pleased to support the case made by the local management team and I am delighted Welsh Government helped secure this important project.

“It will also create significant economic benefits for the wider economy. The supply chain impacts of the investment are considerable as more than £120m will be spent with Welsh suppliers in the first five years of the project.”

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