Aims to tackle existing, emerging clean manufacturing markets in UK
Lisa A. Coleman
STOCKPORT, CHESHIRE, UK—The Management Incentive Through Investment Equity (MITIE) Group PLC, a provider of support and building services to commercial and industrial property owners, has decided to launch its own cleanrooms business within its building services division.
Called MITIE Cleanrooms Ltd., the company has been designed as a clean-build service for cleanrooms and clean manufacturing applications in the UK providing access systems, air conditioning, industrial planning, mechanical and electrical engineering, property services, business services, cleaning and envirocare waste services. MITIE is targeting controlled environments for the pharmaceutical, microelectronic, academic research, aerospace, food, automotive and the healthcare industries.
According to Tim Moorcroft, director for MITIE Cleanrooms Ltd., “We've had lots of cleanrooms experience, so it makes good business sense to set up a company dedicated to it.”
Although MITIE's existing client base has called in MITIE for cleanroom services in the past, the company foresees the new cleanroom unit as a way to expand into new frontiers.
Moorcroft sees emerging markets in the UK, such as optoelectronics and fiber optic component manufacturing, as new cleanroom users. He is also optimistic about the food industry's use of contamination control technology as governmental regulations become stricter. “There's a new steady stream of business coming from the food industry,” Moorcroft reports.
Although emerging markets may provide new cleanroom business, the lion's share of the contamination control market still lies in semiconductor manufacturing in the UK.
In April, Motorola announced plans to acquire Hyundai's 8-inch wafer fabrication facility in Dunfermline, Scotland. Motorola plans to invest $2 billion into the 100,000-square-foot facility, which will produce its DigitalDNA Solutions technology based on 8-inch wafers and deep submicron technology for its telecommunications business.
MITIE's building service division, which includes its new cleanrooms company, has a wide range of customers including Rolls Royce, the Universities of Bristol and Warwick, Philips, Chivas Distillers, Coventry University and the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. MITIE has a network of companies across the UK with more than 66 branch offices.