News: Royal opening for Sandvik European Centre of Excellence in Rotherham

HRH The Countess of Wessex has officially opened the state-of-the-art Sandvik European Centre of Excellence (SECoE) in Rotherham.

The Swedish firm's 112,500 sq ft facility at Beighton Link Business Park became fully operational in early 2010 and was officially opened last week.

The £4m centre has brought together all the finish processing and supply management activities for the production of medical products from Sandvik's Sheffield facilities.

It has an area dedicated to rapid production and prototyping for the development and manufacture of orthopedic implants, instruments and medical material.

Arnfinn Fredricksson, head of the medical product area at Sandvik, said: "We are delighted that Her Royal Highness has done us the honour of formally opening our new facility.

"Each of the employees has worked incredibly hard to transition this new site, while maintaining continuity of supply in a period of increasing demand, and we are extremely grateful for their efforts.

"This region is ideal because it has an established medical engineering community, excellent support from local agencies and access to talented engineering graduates through the local colleges and universities.

"It is our aim to become the employer of choice for the brightest individuals in the area, who have a real thirst to further themselves and help keep us at the forefront of our industry."

Matrix @ Dinnington, RiDO's £3.4m business centre in Rotherham, was also officially opened by HRH The Countess of Wessex during her visit.

Sandvik website

Images: Sandvik