Investment

Why Scotland?

Many of the top 12 global aerospace, defence and marine companies have facilities in Scotland. Among the reasons why companies choose to locate here, include:

  • High levels of specialist expertise
  • A large number of highly skilled graduates with relevant training emerge from Scotland’s universities each year
  • Excellent track record in public and private partnership – for example, LoganAir uses Tayside Aviation’s facilities and flight simulators in their selection processes
  • Commercialisation of research is encouraged through programmes such as the Proof of Concept Fund
  • Scotland’s excellence in design engineering is famous worldwide
  • Scotland displays a major commitment to skills development, with over 500 apprentices currently training in niche areas
  • Collaborative working and shared best practise schemes are in operation, through various industry bodies. The Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service (SMAS) can also provide support
  • Strong links into key UK sector development activities in process excellence and supply chain development.
  • Scotland is perfectly positioned to take advantage of global time zones. For example - Far east and Asia in the morning, mainland Europe throughout the day and the USA in the afternoon
  • Scotland is an ideal access point to the rest of Europe

Contact details of defence companies located in Scotland

Opportunities

Major consolidation has taken place in the industry over recent years, which has created a small number of multi-national companies who dominate the market.

Trends in the industry include:

  • In civil aviation, lower cost air travel has driven the need for product improvement and cost reduction
  • Aircraft manufacturing is currently a major part of the industry. Major growth in air travel is forecast in India and China over the next 15 years, which could create a significant demand for up to 20,000 new aircraft from these countries alone
  • In manufacturing terms, supply chains worldwide have changed dramatically into a tiered structure – cost accountability for each package is consequently moving further down the chain and Scotland is changing its focus to higher value specialist manufacture and value adding services
  • In civil and military arenas, more collaborative projects have been taking place to share the burden of high development costs – such partnerships are actively encouraged in Scotland