Inward investment agency MIDAS celebrates ‘landmark’ year and job creation milestone

Manchester’s inward investment agency, MIDAS, is looking back on two decades of supporting businesses and safeguarding jobs as it turns 20.

The award winning agency has created and safeguarded 70k jobs at nearly 1,000 businesses since it was founded in 1997.

During that time, MIDAS has worked to make Greater Manchester a top 10 global investment location and managed a number of major investments and relocation projects in the area – among them, deals with international businesses Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Distrelec, BNY Mellon, Syngenta and AEGIS.

Tim Newns, the agency’s chief exec, said: “Over the last 20 years, MIDAS has helped to create and safeguard over 70k jobs across Greater Manchester, spanning a range of industry sectors and Greater Manchester has grown significantly as a global investment location, reaching the pinnacle of being ranked in the top 10 of the IBM Global investment monitor last year.

“From large-scale financial/business services and media investments from the likes of BNY Mellon, Freshfields and Brown Bag Films; to highly innovative life sciences and manufacturing investments from the likes of Hologic and MBDA, MIDAS has facilitated significant investment that has helped Greater Manchester become the UK’s most successful regional city for the attraction of FDI.”

Speaking further, Tim said MIDAS owes much of its success to date to the “continued support of the 10 Greater Manchester local authorities, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and our wider private and public sector stakeholders”.

He continued: “Although we are approaching challenging times in terms of the UK and global economy, there are some incredibly exciting opportunities that lie ahead for Greater Manchester and I have absolute confidence that both MIDAS and Greater Manchester has the skill and offer to take full advantage of them.”

Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership board chairman Mike Blackburn believes MIDAS has made “a significant difference to the economy of Greater Manchester”, adding: “This is a landmark year in the history of MIDAS and we look forward to its continuing success in attracting the new opportunities for Greater Manchester.”