NEWS
Wilton Centre – home to more than 60 businesses with 750 employees .
Centre stage
Science park helps firms grow and innovate
David Smith , the circular economy programme lead for Lucite International .
Earlier this year Tees Business reported how companies based at the Wilton Centre – the North- East ’ s premier science park and home to more than 60 businesses with 750 employees – had successfully weathered the storm caused by the coronavirus pandemic .
Now there is further positive news to share as the return to work gathers pace amid growing evidence of a desire to make up for lost time .
“ One occupier has signed a five-year extension to its lease ,” said the Wilton Centre ’ s accommodation manager Claire Morton .
“ Another has taken two more laboratories and two offices . Before lockdown a tenant also took an additional lab and is about to complete on an extra office ,” she said .
“ One of the many benefits we have is that there is plenty of room here . That means our occupiers – whether they employ five people or 50 – can grow and avoid the cost and disruption of a move .”
For Lucite International , which has nearly 100 staff and contractors based at the Wilton Centre , the combination of onsite laboratories and ample space provides the ideal infrastructure for it to carry out ground-breaking work .
It is basing a project team in a 1,000-sq ft office where it aims to perfect a process and design a plant to recycle acrylic , one of the world ’ s most useful plastics .
Acrylic was developed by ICI on Teesside in the 1930s . It is a polymer made
The A66 throughabout , designed by Lynas Engineers .
from methyl methacrylate ( MMA ) and used in the manufacture of a multitude of products , including lighting , car number plates , signage , medical equipment and the protective “ sneeze ” screens which have been installed in buildings all over the world as a result of Covid-19 .
“ When they come to the end of their life there will be thousands and thousands of these screens and what do you do with them ?” said David Smith , the circular economy programme lead for Lucite International , who is heading the project .
Until now , the answer for products made out of acrylic was to incinerate them , bury them in landfill or ship them to countries such as India where they would be partially recycled . Even then , though , there would only be one further use .
“ What we ’ re looking to do is something very different ,” said David . His team is working on a process Lucite is calling molecular recycling . It will reverse the production process of acrylic and purify the MMA , allowing the cycle to start again .
“ This is exciting and seriously gamechanging . For Lucite it ’ s one of the biggest projects in years because if we get this right , we don ’ t just add value to the company , we potentially add value to the world because we ’ re cutting down on CO2 emissions and reducing landfill , for example . The benefits for everyone are incredible .”
Lucite has been based at the Wilton Centre for more than a quarter of a century . Lynas Engineers is a relative newcomer .
It moved there in 2017 to be based near potential customers and benefit from the flexible office space it provides .
“ It ’ s an ideal location for companies just starting out , but hoping to grow ,” said managing director Rob Lynas .
“ There are lots of different types of offices here and a lot of room . We started with an office for two people and we ’ re now in our fourth .”
Lynas Engineers employs nine people and has just completed its biggest project – the £ 4m A66 / A171 Cargo Fleet Junction improvement , known as the “ throughabout ”.
“ Sometimes when you work for the big consultancies you don ’ t get such a feeling of ownership and satisfaction ,” said Wayne Farrell , one of the company ’ s directors .
“ It ’ s also demonstrated that even though we ’ re a small team we have enough experience and capability to deliver these larger schemes .”
For more information about the Wilton Centre visit wiltoncentre . com . The voice of business in the Tees region | 67