High performance polymer manufacturer Victrex (Thornton Cleveleys / UK; www.victrex.com) has touted plans to build a new Polymer Innovation Centre in northern England. All in all, the company intends to invest USD 24.6m in the project, which could create up to 80 direct and indirect jobs, over the course of the next 10 years. Victrex is receiving financial assistance to the tune of USD 2m from the UK government’s Regional Growth Fund for the project. The grant is still subject to due diligence, the company said.

The centre will focus on turning lab concepts into scalable productions, up to full commercialisation, Victrex said, adding that high-performance polymers such as polyaryletherketone (PAEK) are increasingly used for a range of applications from the aviation to the consumer electronics, automotive, energy and medical sectors. The Polymer Innovation Centre will help address producers’ needs for more demanding and more efficient processing techniques that will not only save costs but also speed up time-to-market, the company added.

Victrex reported a 9% increase in operating profit for the financial year ended 30 September 2014, with an operating profit of GBP 103m (EUR 129m) and sales of GBP 253m – see Plasteurope.com of 12.12.2014.