Renishaw
A manufacturing company with headquarters in Wotton-under-Edge has been recognised as the county’s largest business employer in the 2008 listing of Gloucestershire’s Top 100 Businesses. World leading measurement company Renishaw plc now employs over 1,400 people at its sites in Wotton, Woodchester and Stonehouse, and in the annual list produced by Gloucestershire Media was also positioned 11th by sales turnover, increasing worldwide sales to £180.9 million.
The Top 100 list includes companies that have their head office in Gloucestershire, including leading financial services providers such as Cheltenham & Gloucester plc and the Chelsea Building Society, but excludes public sector employers such as the NHS and GCHQ. The list is compiled from various databases and edited by Gloucestershire Media in association with accountants and business advisors Hazlewoods.
Within Gloucestershire, Renishaw has four main facilities. Its head office based at New Mills, near Wotton-under-Edge, houses the majority of the company’s research & development, whilst the company’s Spectroscopy Products Division is located at a site within Wotton previously occupied by Lister Petter. The main machining facility at Stonehouse has already been hailed by industry commentators as representing the very best practices in machine automation and process quality, and at Woodchester, near Stroud, Renishaw’s main assembly operation features the latest technologies used to automate the assembly of electronic circuit boards.
Speaking about the formal recognition as the county’s largest business employer, Renishaw’s spokesman Chris Pockett said, “We feel proud that a manufacturing business is now the county’s largest private sector employer. This simply reinforces the fact that contrary to popular belief, it is still possible to make real products profitably in the UK. We offer attractive career opportunities from R&D and engineering, through to IT and marketing, and with exciting developments in new areas such as medical devices, we look forward to continuing our strong employment record both within Gloucestershire and in developing overseas markets.”