Howden Compressors is to invest £1.2 million at its manufacturing facility in Renfrew.

The three-year investment will see the engineering company develop and expand its range of oil-free screw compressors for the Oil & Gas industrial compressor markets.

Supported by a £431,000 R&D grant from Scottish Enterprise, it is expected the investment will see nine new jobs created at the company by 2020/21

Howden designs, engineers, manufactures and installs oil-free screw compressors at its Renfrew site, which are used to provide compressed air and other gases of exceptional purity in various challenging applications such as vapour recompression, gas gathering, gas re-liquefaction and flare gas recovery.


Over 350 staff are employed at the facility, which is the company's Global Centre of Excellence for screw compressor design and manufacturing.

Speaking during a visit to the site today, 05 January, Finance Secretary Derek Mackay said: "I'm ‎delighted to see Howden investing £1.2 million in their Renfrew facility with the aim of developing and expanding their range of products.

"I'm also pleased to note that this investment is being supported by a Scottish Enterprise R&D grant of £431,000.

"Increasing the levels of business innovation is critical to Scotland's economic success, and it's great to see Howdens putting this into action.‎"

Fred Hearle, Global Product Director and Managing Director for Howden Compressors, added: "Over decades, Howden introduced many innovations, from the forced draught system and the invention of the Diaphragm Compressor to the commercialisation of the Rotary Heat Exchanger and the Screw Compressor.

"The development of our oil-free range of screw compressors is part of our continuous investment to use innovation driven product design and continue to deliver our excellent products to our customers."

(LM)