Innovation comes in all shapes and sizes

Lancashire is a hotbed of business innovation. We have some significant businesses at the cutting edge of advanced manufacturing, producing new technology with global impact. And with institutions like the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre North West right here in the county, we are driving improvements in productivity, performance and quality.

There is also the recently announced £13m Innovation Hub being progressed at Samlesbury, and other large scale projects in the pipeline - such as Blackpool’s Silicon Sands and Eden Project Morecambe - all of which will support a wide range of local supply chains and specialist subsectors.

But innovation comes in all shapes and sizes, and from businesses large and small, across a variety of sectors.

Prof Graham Baldwin, vice-chancellor of the University of Lancashire, is chair of the Lancashire Innovation Board (LIB), a cohort of business leaders, academics and policymakers which oversees the work of the county’s Innovate Lancashire growth programme.

He says: “In terms of innovation, Lancashire has come a long way over the last few years.

“The Innovate Lancashire programme is helping to deliver targeted county wide support which is helping to accelerate early stage growth, enable collaborations and open up new market opportunities, while initiatives like Fhunded, the LIFT festival, Fraser House, and the Lancashire Digital Hub, are having a positive impact at a grassroots level.

“But innovation led growth isn’t just about shiny laboratories, or trying to uncover the next unicorn. It’s about thinking differently about how you do things throughout your organisation, regardless of which industry you are in.

“And while technologies like AI clearly have the potential to make a massive impact on all kinds of companies, innovation can also mean making a small, practical or creative intervention which simply makes your business run just that bit better.

“That is our longer term challenge: establishing a culture of innovation throughout all our sectors - and at all levels – which will increase Lancashire’s competitiveness. In turn, this will help unlock new growth opportunities across every part of the county’s economy.”

We asked our readers to share their stories to demonstrate the varied nature of innovation and change. The responses came from micro businesses with just a handful of people to larger organisations, some of which have been established for many years.

Each has demonstrated how, by introducing new products, new processes, or new ways of working with people, they have been able to drive growth through innovation and change.

To see the businesses featured, see Lancashire Business View issue 131 September/October 2026.