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Made in Sandwell: the Place that Still Makes Britain Work

General Invest 8 November 2026
The world’s first purpose-built steam engine factory was in Smethwick. So was the glassworks that made the panes for the Crystal Palace. Two centuries on, Sandwell is still making the parts the rest of the country runs on, and for manufacturers looking for a UK base, that heritage is a working advantage.

In the 1790s, Matthew Boulton and James Watt built the Soho Foundry beside the canal in Smethwick, the first factory in the world designed to build complete steam engines. Half a century later, Chance Brothers on Spon Lane produced more than 956,000 sq ft of glass for the 1851 Great Exhibition building.

Sandwell’s own corporate plan describes the borough as the supply chain centre of the UK, and it’s easy to see why. More than 21,000 people work in manufacturing here, the borough’s largest employer, and its firms supply components and materials into aerospace, construction, engineering, healthcare and almost every industry in between. Few places in Britain can match that density of making.

Five times the national average

Sandwell isn’t just industrial. It’s specialist. The borough has five times the UK concentration of jobs in metals and metal products, producing materials used in automotive, aerospace and modern machinery. More than 1,000 of the Black Country’s strategic companies are based here, including specialty steel supplier voestalpine High Performance Metals, whose UK headquarters in Oldbury serves aerospace, defence, power generation and automotive customers across the country.

For an incoming manufacturer, that means the toolmakers, machinists, coaters and fabricators you need aren’t a procurement exercise away. They’re down the road. For a supplier, it means customers on your doorstep and some of the UK’s biggest manufacturers within half an hour.

A supply chain that’s changing gears

The old picture of Black Country industry is out of date. Sandwell’s manufacturers are retooling for new markets, backed by the West Midlands Investment Zone. Its Supply Chain Transition Programme helps local SMEs move into high-growth sectors and win new orders, drawing on expertise from the Manufacturing Technology Centre and WMG at the University of Warwick.

For investors bringing new technologies to the UK, that’s the real prize: a supply base that has the skills and is actively looking for its next big customer.

Developers are betting on it

The clearest sign of confidence is what’s being built. In Smethwick, Logicor Spring 89 is rising just off Junction 1 of the M5: 89,052 sq ft of next-generation warehouse and manufacturing space, designed for energy-intensive occupiers. In Wednesbury, Mercia Real Estate is delivering a 65,000 sq ft Grade A unit, and its chief executive points to the Black Country’s depth of potential occupiers. In Oldbury, a 130,000 sq ft facility two minutes from the M5 is being refurbished with power that can scale up to 5MVA.

They join businesses that already chose Sandwell for headquarters or major operations, including DPD, the AA and IKEA. Often for a simple reason: premises here cost less than in much of the UK.

Where the motorways meet

Sandwell sits on the M5 at Junctions 1 and 2 and the M6 at Junction 9, close to where Britain’s two great north–south motorways join. From here, 82.9% of the UK population is within a four-hour drive. Sandwell & Dudley station puts Birmingham New Street less than 10 minutes away and London Euston just over two hours, and Birmingham Airport is around 30 minutes by road.

It’s getting better connected, too. The West Midlands Metro already runs through West Bromwich and Wednesbury, with an extension adding new stops in Tipton, and £30 million of investment has brought gigabit-capable broadband to the borough.

The next chapter is already open

Sandwell is no longer only about heavy industry. In October 2024, the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital opened in Smethwick, on land once used by engineering giant GKN.

Next door, the Midland Met Learning Campus, Sandwell’s first university campus, will train more than 1,280 students a year with Aston University, the University of Wolverhampton and Sandwell College. Together they’re anchoring the regeneration of the Smethwick to Birmingham corridor and bringing new demand for health and life sciences suppliers.

Across the borough, £3 billion of public and private investment is planned, with 61 projects already under way.

Built for makers

Sandwell offers manufacturers something rare: a specialist supply chain on the doorstep, modern space ready to occupy, lower costs, and a location that puts most of Britain within a day’s drive. It has been making things for the world for more than 200 years. For the businesses that make things today, it’s ready for what comes next.

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