Waters officially launches new mass spectrometry base in Wilmslow

Waters has marked the launch of its custom-built mass spectrometry headquarters in Wilmslow with an official inauguration ceremony.

British chancellor George Osborne and company chief executive Doug Berthiaume both attended the ceremony, two years after Mr Osborne first helped to break ground on the project. The state-of-the-art site spans 2,313 sq m and will employ more than 500 people.

Incorporating customer demonstration laboratories, research and development capabilities and an expanded manufacturing capacity, the new base is also highly sustainable, even incorporating a facility to house a colony of Pipistrelle bats found to be indigenous to the area.

This will strengthen the north-west's reputation as a research and development hub for mass spectrometry, with the technique having originally been pioneered in Manchester in the early 1800s.

Brian Smith, vice-president of mass spectrometry operations at Waters, said: "The new facility has been specially designed to enhance collaboration and drive innovation, building on the research and scores of patents that we have already accomplished in the field."

The firm holds worldwide leading positions in the field of complementary analytical technologies, a market that encompasses liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry, rheometry and microcalorimetry.