Manufacturing shaped Wales from the start of the Industrial Revolution, from coal, iron and steel to shipbuilding and metalworking. It still matters more here than almost anywhere else in the UK. In 2024 manufacturing was 14.6% of everything the Welsh economy produced, against 8.9% for the UK as a whole, a gap the Welsh Government calls the single biggest difference between the two economies. This article sets out what the sector looks like in late 2026, where the money is going and which employers are shaping it.
Manufacturing in Wales: the key numbers
- 14.6% of Welsh output. Manufacturing was 14.6% of Welsh gross value added in 2024, against 8.9% for the UK, on the provisional current-price figures the ONS published in September 2026 (15.2% and 9.1% in 2023). The share has fallen from 20.6% in 1999, but Welsh manufacturing productivity remains higher than in other parts of the UK (ONS, Regional gross value added (balanced) by industry, 23 September 2026; Welsh Government, Wales Economic and Fiscal Report 2025, November 2025).
- About 138,000 jobs and £12 billion a year. The industry body Make UK puts Welsh manufacturing at 138,000 jobs, about £12 billion of output a year and 15.6% of the Welsh economy on its own measure, the highest share of any UK nation, with wages around 8% above the Welsh average (Make UK, Welsh manufacturing manifesto, March 2026).
- Jobs have been growing. Make UK and BDO reported 13,000 more Welsh manufacturing jobs in the year to March 2024, led by aerospace and defence; transport equipment alone is about 15.5% of Welsh manufacturing (July 2024).
The Welsh Government’s framework
The Welsh Government’s current plan for the sector is A Manufacturing Future for Wales, the framework published in February 2021, when manufacturing supported about 145,000 jobs, roughly one in ten Welsh workforce jobs against 7.7% across the UK. It was refreshed in April 2023 as Our journey to Wales 4.0, with digital adoption, decarbonisation and skills as the three themes. There is no newer national manufacturing plan as of October 2026; the framework and its refresh are the documents that still apply.
The most visible public investment remains the Cardiff Capital Region City Deal’s compound semiconductor cluster. Its first and largest commitment, approved in 2017, was around £38 million to buy and fit out the Newport foundry that IQE leases, a commercial investment that the ten councils expect to be repaid with interest.
Recent investment and change, 2025 to 2026
- Airbus, Broughton. On 21 September 2026 Airbus announced a £150 million conversion of the former A380 wing facility at Broughton into an A321 wing line, with around 480 new high-value jobs this year, joining a workforce of about 6,000 at the plant.
- IQE, Cardiff and Newport. The compound semiconductor group is headquartered in Cardiff and runs its foundry at Newport. A strategic review that widened into a possible sale in September 2025 concluded in April 2026 with an £81 million fundraise led by MACOM and long-term supply agreements, so the Newport site continues under IQE.
- JCB Transmissions, Wrexham. JCB’s Welsh site, making gearboxes and axles since 1998, employs more than 500 people and added a hydrogen generator and battery pack line in October 2025 as part of a £100 million group investment.
- Aston Martin, St Athan. The DBX has been built at St Athan since 2020 on the 90-acre former Ministry of Defence site, where the 2016 plan was for up to 750 jobs at peak. The last two years have been harder: 170 roles went across Gaydon and St Athan in early 2025, more than 100 St Athan roles were put into consultation in November 2025, and in February 2026 the company announced up to 600 further cuts worldwide after a £364 million loss.
Why high value manufacturing matters to Wales
High value manufacturing is where the well-paid, skilled jobs are, and where a region’s supply chain, training and research cluster around a few anchor employers. Aerospace at Broughton, compound semiconductors around Newport and Cardiff, diagnostics at Pencoed and automotive at St Athan each support hundreds of smaller engineering, toolmaking, electronics and service businesses. For employers that means competition for the same maintenance engineers, quality engineers, production managers and technicians, which is why time to hire and employer reputation decide who gets the best people.
Examples of high value manufacturers based in Wales
1. Airbus builds the wings for Airbus airliners at Broughton in Flintshire, the UK’s largest aerospace manufacturing site, and announced a £150 million A321 wing line there in September 2026. Its other Welsh site, Airbus Defence and Space at Newport, works on secure communications and cyber security for the UK government and NATO rather than aircraft parts.
2. IQE is a Cardiff-headquartered maker of compound semiconductor wafers used in phones, data centres and sensors, with its main UK foundry at Newport. The business was refinanced in April 2026 and remains the anchor of the South Wales semiconductor cluster.
3. QuidelOrtho, formerly Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, has made diagnostic tests at Pencoed, near Bridgend, since 2009. The site employed about 670 people when it applied to expand in 2023, and the company has traded as QuidelOrtho since the 2022 merger of Quidel and Ortho.
4. JCB Transmissions at Wrexham Industrial Estate is JCB’s Welsh plant, with more than 500 people making gearboxes, axles and, since October 2025, hydrogen generators and battery packs. JCB itself was founded in Staffordshire in 1945 and is still headquartered there.
5. Aston Martin builds its DBX SUV at St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan, the company’s second UK plant after Gaydon. It is a high-value employer and a reminder that even flagship sites move with their parent’s fortunes, as the 2025 and 2026 job cuts showed.
What it means if you are hiring
The pattern across these employers is the same: investment arrives in waves, skills are the constraint, and the engineers who keep plants running are the hardest to find. If you need permanent manufacturing or engineering staff in Wales, our manufacturing recruitment agency page explains how we work, or you can submit a vacancy and we will come back with a view on the market for that role.
Sigma Recruitment Ltd is not claiming to represent, to be recruiting for or to be in any way connected with the companies named above; they are mentioned for information only.
Reviewed and rewritten 26 October 2026. Sources: ONS, Regional gross value added (balanced) by industry (23 September 2026, 2024 provisional); Welsh Government, Wales Economic and Fiscal Report 2025; Make UK, Welsh manufacturing manifesto (March 2026); Make UK/BDO regional report (July 2024); Welsh Government, A Manufacturing Future for Wales (2021) and Our journey to Wales 4.0 (2023); Welsh Government, City Deal semiconductor foundry announcement (September 2017); Airbus press release, 21 September 2026; IQE plc, conclusion of strategic review, 27 April 2026; Business News Wales, JCB 80th anniversary and Wrexham investment (October 2025); QuidelOrtho Pencoed planning statement (September 2023); UK Government, Aston Martin St Athan announcement (February 2016); Nation.Cymru and BM Magazine, Aston Martin job cuts (November 2025 and February 2026).
