Advanced Manufacturing

Hertfordshire continues to build on its pioneering industrial heritage. The first production commercial jetliner, the de Havilland Comet, was developed and manufactured in Hatfield in 1947 and Hertfordshire was home to the first digital radio manufacturer in the UK. North Hertfordshire and Stevenage account for about a third of the county’s manufacturing jobs, forming a wider cluster with the technological companies of the wider Cambridge region. 

Stevenage is the leading location for the UK space industry and home to the 2018 ExoMars Rover and the 2017 Solar Orbiter Satellite research and development programmes. In 2023, Airbus was awarded a £3.9m UK Space Agency grant to develop Space Catalyst in Stevenage. Airbus is creating a range of facilities at its 14 acre site available to new and existing space players to encourage growth in the wider space ecosystem. The space catalyst will also have the opportunity to link with the Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst to advance space based bioscience research and commercialisation. The unique co-location of manufacturing, pharma and advanced therapeutics incubation is enabling companies to move from start-up to scale up to the development of potentially life-saving therapeutics. 

Hertfordshire’s advanced manufacturing sector plays a critical role in relation to innovation and commercialisation processes, its overall export performance and future wealth. Hertfordshire Futures is establishing an Advanced Manufacturing Industry Panel to take forward the Sector Action Plan to develop a vibrant advanced manufacturing community and drive further investment into the sector.