MartijnVos, managing director of Hydro Components UK
Reshaping a business fit for the future
A multi-million-pound investment in a new car component manufacturing plant fit to serve the next generation of vehicles, which will create 40 new jobs, is taking place in Gloucester. You may not have heard of Hydro, but it is already working for some of the UK’s biggest car marques, and most prestigious ones too. It is quite simply one of the world’s biggest aluminium businesses – one of the largest outside of China – excelling from mining bauxite through to the production of three million tonnes of aluminium product worldwide. One third of that product is already made from recycled aluminium – significant (and attractive to customers seeking greener solutions) when considered that recycling takes only five per cent of
the energy used in primary production. “More than one million tonnes is remelt and a large portion of that has already had a life before,” said Dr Martijn Vos, Managing Director of Hydro Components UK Ltd. “Aluminium is infinitely recyclable without losing its properties. Seventy five per cent of all aluminium ever produced is still in use today and the volume is increasing. “When compared to plastics for example, PET bottles can be recycled into Adidas shoes, however when my shoes are worn out, they still end up in landfill. “Aluminium is the metal of the future. It is all around us every day, in computers, beverage cans, shower cabins, windows, doors, light poles in the streets, in cars and public transportation. “In fact, the cities of the future built around the world
December 2019 | www. punchline-gloucester .com | 7
Made with FlippingBook Learn more on our blog