Northern Ireland’s growing Aerospace industry received a strong boost yesterday as Canadian firm Magellan Aerospace announced a new £6m investment in the company’s Greyabbey facility. The investment will also see a 40-50% rise in Magellan Northern Ireland employment levels, with the creation of 47 new jobs over the next 5 years. Magellan’s investment will see the company expand is existing factory in County Down, as well as buying new manufacturing equipment – helping the company towards its overall ambition of moving up the Aerospace supply chain.
The investment is also based on an initial £700,000 grant received from Invest Northern Ireland, and shows the continued level of support for the country’s Aerospace industry from the Northern Ireland Assembly and the ‘Northern Ireland Partnering for Growth’ aerospace strategy launched this year.
The strategy focuses on improving the scope and breadth of the country’s supply chain, raising the revenue of the aerospace, space, security and defence sectors to £2bn per year over the next ten years and complementing the initiatives and projects set to be developed by the UK’s Aerospace Growth Partnership (AGP). Through Bombardier Aerospace Belfast in particular, the AGP and the new Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) will help to bring new products and technologies to market, building on the progress made by industry and government on programmes such as the Bombardier C-Series and the Northern Ireland Advanced Composites Centre (NIACE).
