Altus Group has announced a major expansion of its Redditch headquarters, adding approximately 363 square metres of space and a new customer experience centre, a move that gives UK and Ireland electronics manufacturers direct sight of a complete, connected production line before they commit capital to one.

The expansion will allow the company to install a full inline manufacturing solution spanning SMT assembly, THT assembly, backend production and component management, developed with its technology partners.

Joe Booth, chief executive officer at Altus Group, said the acquisition marks an important milestone for the business, giving it space to demonstrate its capabilities as a single-source manufacturing partner. He said the new centre would let manufacturers see how an entire production environment can be configured and optimised as one connected process, rather than assessed piece by piece. Booth said the aim was to create what he described as a gold standard facility that reflects how modern electronics manufacturing operates.

Altus Group is a leading distributor of electronics manufacturing equipment across the UK and Ireland, supplying SMT assembly, THT assembly, backend production and component management technology from its Redditch headquarters, opened in 2019 and expanding again in September 2026.

The expansion reflects a structural shift in UK electronics manufacturing towards turnkey, single-source production solutions rather than standalone machine sales, as distributors compete to demonstrate fully connected factory lines rather than individual equipment.

The timing coincides with sustained growth in the UK electronics manufacturing services market, projected to expand from $14.51 billion in 2026 to $18.42 billion by 2031, driven by reshoring policy, rising defence outlays and demand for sovereign assembly capability.

That growth reflects deliberate policy support rather than pure market pull, with Made Smarter grants helping offset a persistent labour cost gap against Eastern European manufacturing rivals.

For Altus, positioning its Redditch facility as a demonstration hub for complete manufacturing environments, rather than a sales showroom, supports its stated ambition to act as a single-source partner as customers plan new investment programmes.

The wider signal for equipment distributors is that customer experience infrastructure, not just product range, is becoming a competitive differentiator as manufacturers seek to de-risk capital decisions on connected production lines before committing budget.

Source: Machinery Market / Mordor Intelligence