Glass maker invests £40m in factory site

Apr 30 2008 by Alex Turner, Liverpool Daily Post

PILKINGTON is to invest £40m in one of its St Helens sites, safeguarding more than 230 jobs and creating 20 more.

The glass giant has submitted plans to St Helens Council for a £15m coat- ing plant, while £22m will be spent on repairing a float line which melts 250,000 tonnes of glass each year.

The coating facility, which is planned for its Greengate site near the town centre, will produce Activ self cleaning glass, and use nanotechnology developed at the company’s European Technical Centre at Lathom, near Ormskirk, to produce coated glass for the solar cell and thermal installation markets. Pilkington expects to be producing coated glass at the site by next April.

The company also recently invested £7m at its Watson Street site in the town, which is now producing low iron glass for solar panels and photo-voltaic cells to convert light into electricity.

The new investment, which is supported by a £3m grant from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, was secured with the assistance of The Mersey Partnership (TMP), North West Regional Development Agency and St Helens Council.

Pilkington’s operations director, Ron Hamilton, said: “This has been an excellent example of the public sector working in partnership with a private company.

“This makes sure St Helens and the North West is in a position to grow with emergent technologies.”

Pilkington recently became the main sponsor of the town’s rugby league club, for the first time in its history, which sees the Pilkington Activ brand displayed on the Challenge Cup winners’ kit.

BILL GLEESON: PAGE 8

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