Major locational advantages, access to a large market and skilled workforce, and award-winning business support services have helped to position North Lincolnshire as the location for investment and business growth.

North Lincolnshire’s rich industrial and agricultural heritage has provided a solid foundation for today’s successful and diverse industry. The area will undoubtedly continue to provide a home for businesses with a sustainable future thanks to large-scale developments and significant area renaissance to support economic growth.
 

AN ESTABLISHED MANUFACTURING BASE
North Lincolnshire is home to five power stations, two major oil refineries that generate 27% of the UK’s production, Corus’s Scunthorpe works, over two dozen multinational companies and many more British companies in a number of key sectors including metals and engineering, logistics, chemicals and food and drink.

The manufacturing sector in North Lincolnshire has an established history and plays a significant role in the area’s economy. The sector currently employs over 23% of the area’s workforce, compared to 10.7% nationally, and has continued to grow despite a national decline. With existing businesses expanding and a number of large-scale inward investments, this figure is set to rise further.

Locally there are over 25 chemical manufacturers including Koppers Europe and Jotun Paints. The South Humber Bank is home to ConocoPhillips Humber Refinery and the Total Lindsey Oil Refinery, which form the UK’s largest refinery cluster.

Other significant concentrations of manufacturers are focused in the food and drink sector with global players including Esca Food Solutions, Can Pack and Vion; and in the metals sector the likes of Corus and Rainham Steel lead the field.

This strong manufacturing base has led to wide scale use of cutting-edge techniques, and has established an abundance of skills in the sector as well as a flexible workforce used to working shift patterns.

The variety of manufacturing businesses in the area has also created a network of organisations offering support and expertise to the sector. These include The Logistics Institute, which works with businesses to improve supply chain efficiency; The Design Enterprise Centre at Hull University that supports SME’s with product developments, rapid prototyping, materials and patent advice; and Humber Chemical Focus, which brings together the Humber’s chemical cluster to enhance its competitiveness.

ACCESS TO A GLOBAL GATEWAY
North Lincolnshire’s central UK location and extensive transport infrastructure has established the area as a global gateway for distribution and logistics.

The area’s onward transport infrastructure provides a major competitive advantage for businesses located in North Lincolnshire. Distribution channels include some of the UK’s least congested motorways, two international airports on the doorstep at Humberside and Doncaster, and the UK’s second largest heliport at Humberside Airport. An expanding rail network with the rail freight terminal for the Channel Tunnel within 20 miles, adds to North Lincolnshire’s locational attractions.

For heavy industry one of the area’s core strengths is direct access to the South Humber Ports of Immingham, Killingholme and Grimsby, and a series of privately owned wharves along the Rivers Trent and Humber. The South Humber Ports are already the busiest in the UK by tonnage of cargo handled, and with further port developments planned the capacity to handle an increase in cargo will only grow. Together with the Humber Sea Terminal the ports are also key nodes on the North European Trade Axis linking Ireland to the Netherlands, Germany, Poland and the Baltic States.