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Page 8 September 2026 AD SALES 01204 478812 BUSINESS TO ADVERTISE CALL 01204 478812 £ A £100million redevelop- ment being carried out by global automotive compo- nent business Astemo at its Horwich manufacturing plant is on track to finish next April as planned. The site will house two new inverter production lines to sup- port the next generation of elec- tric vehicle (EV) powertrains. The upgrade is scheduled to create 125 new jobs and safe- guard another 100. More than 20 roles have already been filled, with recruitment for the remain- der underway. News of the redevelopment work was first announced in July 2025. Since then, several major project milestones have been hit. Around 80 per cent of the site’s footprint has been to accommo- date new production lines and supporting infrastructure The news coincided with a site visit from two senior leaders of the Astemo business: Mathieu Devillard, executive vice presi- dent, head of electrification busi- ness, who is based in Japan, and Doug Bowling, regional head of Europe. They were hosted in Bol- ton by Lee Owens, Astemo UK managing director, who said: “Twelve months on from the first announcement of this upgrade, start of production for our contracted OEM customer remains on target for April 2027. “Furthermore, creation of what will be state-of-the-art production facilities, staffed by highly trained new personnel, continues to attract attention from the wider UK automo- tive industry. “This is great news for Astemo and the North West UK region. What we are building in Bol- ton will support future quoting opportunities and potential growth for Astemo.” Mathieu Devillard added: “It is amazing to see the progress which has been made since I last visited the Bolton site. “Astemo globally manufac- tures advanced mobility, pow- ertrain, and chassis systems across more than 100 sites. The Bolton investment marks the fourth country in which we manufacture innovative EV components, following Japan, the US and China.” The two new Bolton produc- tion lines can manufacture more than a million inverters every year. Astemo UK’s next-gen- eration inverters have been purpose-engineered to deliver excellent efficiency, while being both compact and lightweight CHANGES to the R&D tax relief scheme are causing innovative small and medium-sized businesses to scale back their research activity, new figures suggest. Companies are reducing investment, delaying pro- jects and cutting their recruitment, according to a new survey. It questioned 254 chief financial officers at R&D-ac- tive UK SMEs and discovered that 62 per cent had cut their research and development investment as a direct result of reforms introduced from 2023. Those reforms were intended to tackle fraud and error within the UK’s R&D tax relief regime. The changes merged the previous SME and large-company tax relief schemes into a single sys- tem, introduced Advance Notification requirements for many claimants, restricted relief for overseas R&D and increased HMRC compliance checks. However, according to the survey, more than a third of respondents had hired fewer R&D or tech- nical staff than planned because of the changes and 29 per cent had delayed projects. One in five of those quizzed had cancelled projects altogether. And three in ten reported making redundancies or leaving posts unfilled as a result of delays or uncer- tainty surrounding tax relief payments. Figures published last October also showed a worrying trend. They revealed the number of SMEs claiming research and development (R&D) tax credits fell by nearly a third in 2023-24. The report fromHMRevenue & Customs (HMRC) showed that the overall number of claims by busi- nesses fell by 26 per cent to the lowest figure in nearly a decade – with a 31 per cent drop when it came to SMEs. They were the first statistics affected by the change in relief rates for the SME and R&D expenditure credit (RDEC) schemes. £100m Astemo development is on track R&D tax relief reforms reduce investment for easy powertrain integration. The Bolton investment – which is valued at more than £100m in total – is backed by the UK government via the Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF), led by the Depart- ment for Business and Trade in partnership with the Advanced Propulsion Centre. Under the government’s DRIVE35 programme, the ATF will continue to unlock private investment in strategic zero-emission vehicle technolo- gies in the UK. Key suppliers for all renova- tion works, plus the creation of a new cleanroom on site, were from the North West. However, the project is global in nature, with resources from Astemo operations across Japan, China and mainland Europe used to support the design, manufacturing and pro- gramme management. Astemo’s Bolton site first opened in 1997 and was pre- viously extended in 2007. It has produced a varied port- folio of alternators, throttle bodies and pumps for the auto- motive industry. Astemo, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a joint venture between Hitachi, Honda and JIC Capital. With 80,000 employees world- wide and operations in Amer- icas, Asia, China, Europe and Japan, the company is a global mega-supplier in the automo- tive industry. PLANS to introduce a direct bus link from Bolton to Mid- dlebrook have been unveiled by transport chiefs. The improved 615 service, part of a wider raft of Greater Manches- ter’s Bee Network upgrades, will also run every 30 minutes, con- necting Middlebrook Retail Park with Bolton town centre. The 615 service will also oper- ate later in the evenings as well as Sundays and Bank Holidays. As part of the service improve- ments, the Bee Network will run four services every hour on the 575 service between Bolton and Blackrod from Monday to Satur- day, with two continuing the jour- ney to Wigan. Extra morning trips will be put on the 507 and 511 routes to help shift workers at Logistics North connect to buses to meet their early start times. The changes were coming into force at the end of August. Robert Hallworth, director of Middlebrook Retail Park, said: “We are delighted with the recent announcement of the additional bus services between Bolton town centre and Middlebrook. “This is not only a key retail customer service that has been missing in recent years, it is also a key commuter route for many of the 7,000 retail and office staff who work across the Middle- brook Estate. “The addition of the 576 and 615 services greatly increases the accessibility for both locations. In Bus boost for Middlebrook addition to improving the retail customer access to Middlebrook, it will also provide better opportuni- ties for employers and those look- ing for employment in the future.” Bev Craig, the newly elected mayor of Greater Manchester, said: “The Bee Network belongs to the people of Greater Manches- ter and it needs to work for every community. As we build it, we’re listening and responding to what residents want with the biggest set of improvements we’ve ever made in one go. “We’re bringing night buses to every borough, launching new routes and ensuring buses run more often in the mornings, eve- nings and weekends. “In doing so, we’re making it easier than ever for people to get around the city region by bus. But we’re also supporting our busi- nesses, whose staff and customers need a reliable and safe way to reach them. “Almost three quarters of a million people live within walking distance of a bus route we’re improving over the next few months. And we’ll continue improving connections for even more communities based on the feedback we get.” Bolton West MP Phil Brickell has welcomed the moves and has called on people in his constituency to tell him what more can be done across his constituency to improve bus services. In a Facebook post he said: “Fan- tastic improvements and I will be writing to Bee Network in the next couple of weeks to raise other potential improvements to routes across Bolton West with another review in the pipeline. Your feed- back secured these changes so please do get in touch.”