Minister visits Alstom in Stafford

DECC Minister Amber Rudd has visited Alstom in Stafford with local MP Jeremy Lefroy to take a closer look at the companys activities in the town.

Visiting both the companys hi-tech MaxSine facility at its St Leonards Road site and the Lichfield Road transformer factory, which is the only one of its kind in the UK, the Minister was able to see some of the technology that makes Alstom a world leader in high voltage power grids around the world.

Neil Beardsmore, Unit Managing Director for Alstom Grid in Stafford, said: We were able to showcase just some of the activities that we undertake for companies around the world, with the transformer factory in particular having a number of export contracts on the go at the moment.

"Our position as a worldwide centre of excellence for certain high voltage technologies for the Alstom Group as a whole means that, not only are we a major employer in the town, were also right at the heart of many major infrastructure projects around the world.

The transformer factory recently won contracts to build portions of three major international projects, in India, South Korea and Canada, and the Champa 1 and 2 projects, in India, are the biggest contracts the factory has won in its 100+ year history.

Alstom employs around 1,700 people in Stafford at three major sites and recently announced plans to build a new state-of-the-art facility at the Redhill Business Park to house its Automation activities.