Industrial clusters cannot be sustained nor grow without the support of an extensive local supply chain. This has become ever more important due to customer focus strategies that have led to the outsourcing of support activities.

A very large and extensive supply chain supports the Process Industry in North East England and essentially underpins the sector.

The key strengths of North East supply chain companies is their long-term competency and knowledge, combined with a real understanding of the chemical industry’s needs.

As a true supply chain cluster, NEPIC actively engages with the entire value chain in order to help drive the regional economy, and more recently has seen an increased desire from the major manufacturing companies within the region to spend more of their budgets locally.

In this scenario the value of information becomes even more critical. The ability to acquire it, process and contextualise the information and then to apply it, will determine an individual company’s chance of being successful and enhancing their position within the supply chain. The principal characteristic of the sector’s supply chain is predominately SMEs.