Lord Mandelson pays visit to Crawley firm

A POLITICAL heavyweight came to Crawley to help a local business last week.

Lord Peter Mandelson went to Manor Royal last Friday (November 13) to open a new a new unit at the Thales building.

The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills attended the new centre, which has seen £100m of investment and three years of development.

All the Thales businesses are now together as part of one 6.3 hectare site.

Kathryn Bell, from Thales, said: "The opening was a great success, and it was an important opportunity for Thales UK to show the minister examples of the high-tech equipment that we make and for him to meet some of our graduates and apprentices."