Part of this sales growth among companies at the Liverpool city region campus has been driven by strong overseas sales with exports accounting for 42% of the total sales. Tony McDonough reports
Businesses at Liverpool city region science and technology facility Sci-Tech Daresbury are reporting sales of more than £115m for 2017.
A survey of 97 of the 130-plus companies at the campus revealed the figure, growth of 33%. During the 12-month period 71% of companies at the site saw their sales grow, up from 55% of companies in 2016.
Part of this sales growth has been driven by strong overseas sales with exports accounting for 42% of the total sales. Sci-Tech Daresbury companies have continued to see strong sustained growth with an average sales growth rate over the past four years of 28% per year.
Companies at the facility include IBM, Hitachi High-Technologies Europe, Perfectus Biomed and Robotik Technology, with 30 new firms locating to the site in 2017.
The data also revealed that a total of 25 companies on the campus recorded sales of more than £1m in 2017 and four of these achieved sales greater than £5m over the 12 months.
More than £36m in investment was raised last year, significantly up from £17m in 2016, with strong growth in investment from other sources such as trade investment and loan funding.
Sci-Tech Daresbury burnished its reputation for attracting some of the best scientific talent and last year the average size of companies based there increased from 7.3 to 7.8 employees through organic growth of companies and also through attraction of larger businesses to the campus.
This increase resulted in 119 more full time jobs becoming available which was an increase of nearly 60% from the previous year making a total of 746 FTE jobs on campus.
Sci-Tech Daresbury is a private-public joint-venture partnership between developer Langtree, the Science and Technology Facilities Counciland Halton Council.
John Downes, group managing director of Langtree and chair of the Sci-Tech Daresbury joint venture company, said: “The excellent growth reported in the latest campus survey is a reflection of the wealth of financial and collaborative benefits on offer to tenants at Sci-Tech Daresbury.
“We are committed to building on our success year on year and it is that thread that runs through everything we do.”