global businesses in Gloucestershire

Any company that trades online could argue that they also trade globally, but there are some in Gloucestershire that can truly claim to be global companies with offices, manufacturing facilities and operations in multiple countries.

From a fashion house, engineering genius and aerospace company par excellence, to a healthcare company, a famous soft drink manufacturer and a specialist in high-performance car parts, the county has many surprises in store and proves that Gloucestershire can operate of any size of the empire.

Superdry plc

If you wear the fashionable Superdry brand, never checked the label and assumed that the once prominent Japanese lettering on their clothes came from the Far East, think again. Born and raised in Cheltenham, the company manufactures its items overseas and distributes them worldwide. There is currently speculation about its future as a public company and co-founder Julian Dunkerton is considering a possible takeover.

Renishaw

Renishaw excels at performance and is simply impressive. Known as one man’s idea to measure components quickly and accurately, it is now a market leader in medicine and 3D printing, with offices in countries from Argentina to Australia, Austria to Thailand, Sri Lanka to Venezuela and Yemen to Zimbabwe. Headquartered in Wotton-under-Edge, the company employs 2,200 people in Gloucestershire and is committed to the training of apprentices and graduates.

Spirax Sarco

When it comes to stunning with sheer amazing achievements in the tech world, Spirax Sarco has a lot to do. As well as being one of Gloucestershire’s largest employers, it is a world leader in so-called ‘steam engineering’ with bases in India and the United States of America and an estimated turnover of £1,344 million. It employs an estimated 1,000 people in the county and 7,900 people worldwide.

GE Aviation

American-owned GE Aviation, an engineering and aerospace company of simply tremendous size, reach and capability, has been a fixture in Bishop’s Cleeve, north of Cheltenham, for some time. It has an estimated 1,600 employees here and bases across the United States. Formerly known as Smiths Aerospace, General Electric Aircraft Engines (GEAE) or GE Aerospace, the company is a leading manufacturer and servicer of jet engines.

saffron

Safran Landing Systems prides itself that if you’ve flown in a large passenger aircraft, chances are the landing gear was made by its experienced staff. It also has its MRO facility here in Staverton dedicated to the maintenance, repair and overhaul of landing gear and related components for commercial, military and helicopter aircraft. The French company has plants at 276 locations in 27 countries and employs 95,000 people.

Raytheon UK

The opening of the Gloucestershire office in February 2015 was a £3million investment that has created 100 jobs. A sign of how seriously the government took the American company’s official arrival in Britain was underscored by the presence of then-Trade and Investment Secretary Lord Livingston. Since opening its cyber innovation center in Barnwood, adjacent to GCHQ, the company has become an integral part of the county’s growing cyber community and remains a key player in the global defense market.

Moog

Engineering giant Moog serves markets as diverse as aerospace, motorsports such as F1, racing yachts, defense, industrial machinery, marine and oil and gas. Headquartered in the US, the company employs an estimated 13,000 people worldwide, including 400 in Tewkesbury. It trains its engineering apprentices in Gloucestershire at GET (Gloucestershire Engineering Training) and is currently investing over £40m in a new facility in Ashchurch.

Great dental

Headquartered in Gloucester, Prima Dental is a leading manufacturer of dental drills that are sold worldwide and the company, which is growing at 20 per cent a year, has just announced a further £7million investment in its Quedgeley site. It has subsidiaries in India and joint venture partnerships in Brazil, Hong Kong and China and produces 50,000 drill bits annually.

Suntory Beverage & Food GB&I

The Lucozade and Ribena soft drinks maker, which employs 330 people at its Gloucestershire factory, recovered well from the pandemic with sales rising to £89m from £385.2m in 2020. The family business is valued at $20 billion and listed on the Japanese Stock Exchange.

Blacksmith Motorsport

Anyone eyeing the high street for fast-moving firms should keep an eye out for Gloucester-based high-performance auto parts maker Forge, whose products have become a global hit. It now has a base in Orlando, USA and distributes to countries such as Australia, China, Dubai, Hong Kong, India, Israel and Japan. The inventive, engineering-driven company is just as at home adding horsepower to a brand new vehicle worth over £100,000 as a modified VW Golf.

corin

Based in the Cotswold, Corin is a market leader in the orthopedic or joint replacement world. Its hip, knee, ankle and shoulder products are sold worldwide and the company, headquartered in Cirencester, has offices in Australia, Europe, Japan and the United States. Now a technology company too, it uses artificial intelligence to provide better predictive outcomes for patients and continually pushes improvements to its already world-leading products.

Trelleborg sealing solutions

Trelleborg Sealing Solutions, based in Tewkesbury, is part of the Trelleborg Group and one of Europe’s leading manufacturing and development facilities for elastomeric products for the niche aerospace and industrial markets. In total, the Swedish-owned group has 6,900 employees, 32 manufacturing facilities worldwide and nine research and development centers in Europe and America.