Hi-tech manufacturing site has echoes of Beatles and Hendrix

A DERELICT complex of buildings in west London, where the records of Elvis Presley, the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix were pressed, is ready to rediscover its historical role as a centre for advanced manufacturing.

The Old Vinyl Factory in Hayes, Middlesex, was once the home of music companies EMI and HMV, employing 22,000 people in its 1960s heyday. As the headquarters of industrial group Thorn EMI, it also became a hub of British engineering innovation, spawning the development of broadcasting systems, stereo, airborne radar and the CAT scanner. Now a joint venture between developers Cathedral Group and Development Securities — backed by London mayor Boris Johnson — is moving to revitalise the windswept 6.8ha site as London’s first "soup-to-nuts" incubator for hi-tech manufacturing entrepreneurs. Advances in rapid prototyping through the use of 3D printers are revolutionising product development by allowing individual entrepreneurs and researchers to make complex components quickly and at low cost.

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Source: Business Day