Air Liquide Invests in New Dedicated Specialty Gases Site for UK Market

The UK Specialty Gases Market is one of the three largest markets in Europe with annual growth year on year consistently above Industrial Production. Following acquisitions in recent years including Scott Specialty Gases, Air Liquide UK has an established presence in the market especially in the Emissions Monitoring, Natural Gas, Chemical, Automotive and Glazing sectors.

Specialty Gases customers are looking for high quality technical products delivered in competitive and reliable lead times to suit their operational needs, supported by a portfolio of value added services. To provide the infrastructure to meet the continuous evolution of customer’s needs, Air Liquide UK has completed a significant investment of over €3 Million in the redevelopment of our filling and production. This key project involves consolidating all the Specialty Gases operations into a centre of excellence for Specialty Gases, centrally based in Stoke-on-Trent, which will be totally dedicated to the production, filling and supply of Specialty Gases. The newly developed site will deliver increased capacity to the UK and Irish markets from July 2011 onwards.

The facility incorporates a brand new state of the art Air Liquide proprietary fill system for the manufacture of calibration mixtures with the highest assurance of quality and safety. This is complimented by the Acublend filling system which is dedicated to providing mixtures with repeatability for emissions testing markets. Key benefits for customers arising from this major investment are the availability of customer oriented Specialty Gases solutions, supplied with improved delivery times and reliability.

This major investment in the ongoing development and improvement of our Specialty Gases operations will deliver a wider and more comprehensive product range of the highest quality. Shorter manufacturing lead times will be supported by an enhanced service offer for the UK market alongside access to worldwide expertise specific to Specialty Gases applications across environment, industry, universities, science and research.

Quotation from Sylvie Villepontoux (Managing Director for Air Liquide UK Limited) “Air Liquide UK continues to prove its ongoing commitment to listen to its customers and develop its business infrastructure with major investments to meet customer and market needs”.