Pilkington invests ￡40m in Northwest facilities

Glass-maker Pilkington is to invest £40m in one of its St Helens sites. The investment will enable the facility to use the latest advanced manufacturing technology to produce a range of innovative new glass products.Plans submitted to St Helens Council include a new £15m coating plant and a further £22m to be invested in upgrading a float line which melts 250,000 tonnes of glass each year.The coating facility will produce Activ self cleaning glass. It will use nanotechnology developed down the road at the company´s European Technical Centre at Lathom, near Ormskirk, to produce coated glass for the solar cell and thermal installation markets.The company also recently invested £7m at a third site in the town to produce 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), Northwest 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 Northwest is in a position to grow with emergent technologies." 30.05.2008, Pilkington Ltd.