sponsored by HEALTH SECTOR NEWS
Clean air specialist boosts growth ambitions with move to larger HQ
Howorth Air Technology, which designs, manufactures, and assembles ultraclean air equipment for operating theatres, and for the pharma, biotechnology, and life science industries, has re-located its headquarters to ‘a flagship north-west development’ to meet growing demand and its future expansion plans. Late last year it moved its HQ
from Victoria Works on Lorne Street, Farnworth, Bolton, where it has had a base for almost 150 years, to a 33,000 ft2
two-storey detached unit
at Logistics North on Bolton’s Lomax Way. The site’s extensive shopfloor space will accommodate its pharma assembly operations, and offices housing medical and pharmaceutical operations, alongside its finance, HR, IT, technical, purchasing, marketing, and health and safety teams. Howorth is retaining its presence at
Raven Locks in Little Hulton, Salford, as home to its medical fabrication
efficiency standards to meet our Net Zero ambitions, provide enough floor space and flexibility to satisfy our current and future needs as we look to expand, sufficient office space to house a growing workforce, and have good transport links. The Logistics North site fulfils all these requirements.” A fit-out of the new premises has been undertaken by Eatock Design & Build. MD, Paul Eatock, said: “To support Howorth’s sustainability initiatives, our design team has opted for locally sourced, eco-friendly materials with a low carbon impact. All desks, storage, and planter units, are made from sustainably sourced materials. The acoustic booths and new flooring are 100% recyclable.” Kenny Macfarlane, MD
operations and service and aftersales team. Its Lorne Street site has been acquired by Bolton-based Handrail Creations, and will remain as a manufacturing facility. The Logistics North development is a high-profile scheme next to junction four of the M61, comprising four million ft2
of space across 250
acres. Occupiers include MBDA, Aldi, Whistl, Amazon, Greene King, and Lidl. The site has a BREAAM
Rockwool plans building new stone insulation plant
Rockwool has signed an agreement to buy 114 acres (46 hectares) of land at Peddimore, north-east of Birmingham, where it plans to build a manufacturing facility featuring proprietary electric melting technology for its stone wool insulation products. The factory would boost supply
capacity for its UK and Republic of Ireland customers, and support its ‘ambitious global sustainability plans’. The Peddimore site, designated specifically for manufacturing use, is included in Birmingham City Council’s Development Plan, and has outline planning permission for a manufacturing facility. In the coming weeks, Rockwool will begin consulting with the community about its plans.
Nick Wilson, MD, Rockwool
UK & Ireland, said: “During the past 45 years, we’ve built a strong foundation at our site in South Wales, where we will continue
‘Very Good’ rating. Howorth’s COO, Adam Ainslie
(pictured right, with Pharma Operations director, Carlo Rava, at the new HQ), said Logistics North ‘stood out as the ideal choice’ for the new HQ.
He explained: “We wanted to
remain within the Bolton area to minimise disruption to our loyal workforce. Our new premises also needed to be built to the highest
of Handrail Creations, which manufactures and supplies commercial handrails, said: “This new factory is three times bigger than our current one, giving us tremendous scope to improve our process, develop our staff, and deliver more contracts annually. As Howorth was based at Victoria Works for almost 150 years, the factory is steeped in its heritage, and we are proud to carry on this legacy.”
Baden facility to become ‘one of Switzerland’s smartest’ hospitals
manufacturing and investing for the long-term, and are now looking to build on that success with a second manufacturing plant at the Peddimore site. “The West Midlands has a skilled local workforce, a strong manufacturing tradition, and excellent transport links, so is an ideal location for us to expand our business in the UK, and bolster our service to customers in the Midlands, northern England, and Scotland. We’re looking forward to sharing our plans with the local community, and are fully committed to being a good neighbour and partner for the Minworth and wider West Midlands community.” The image shows an
artist’s impression of the new manufacturing facility.
‘Partnering’ with Kantonsspital Baden (KSB) in Switzerland, Siemens Smart Infrastructure says it will deploy technologies and digital services from the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio there to create ‘one of the country’s smartest’ hospitals. Described as ‘a demand-driven, customised Internet of Things (IoT) platform with over 7,000 IoT sensors’, the project will – Siemens Smart Infrastructure says – ‘ensure a user- centric patient experience, improved patient care, increased energy efficiency, and optimised operations’. The technology and infrastructure specialist explained: “An open digital business platform, Siemens Xcelerator enables customers to accelerate their digital transformation easier, faster, and at scale.” The ‘smart hospital platform’ supports the creation of smart hospitals through a collaborative development approach that reduces the complexity of digital transformation. The platform brings together multiple data streams from the new KSB building, which is
scheduled to open in early 2025, and its users.”
Siemens is installing a navigation
system for a specially developed app. It says this simplifies patients finding treatment rooms and other locations on the sizeable hospital campus – including cafés, and public transport stops – and will reduce waiting times and increase treatment capacity. It is also deploying 2,000 ‘smart tags’ at KSB, which are assigned to the most crucial assets, such as hospital beds, wheelchairs, and other medical equipment, and connected to the Smart Hospital Platform. Frost & Sullivan’s research suggests that in healthcare facilities without real-time location services, staff spend 72 minutes on average per shift searching for equipment.
January 2025 Health Estate Journal 21
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