If you drive past Junction 21 of the M62 on a regular basis, you’ll have watched Kingsway Business Park fill up over the years. Manufacturing units, logistics operations, distribution centres. What you might not know is that Kingsway is now one of three sites at the heart of something much bigger: Atom Valley.
We’re based in Milnrow, a few minutes from Kingsway. So when we say this is happening on our doorstep, we mean it literally. And we think local business owners should know what’s coming, because the opportunity is genuinely significant.
What is Atom Valley?
Atom Valley is Greater Manchester’s flagship innovation cluster, a Mayoral Development Zone spanning Rochdale, Bury and Oldham. The name is a nod to the region’s scientific heritage. Rutherford split the atom in Manchester, and the ambition here is to build something worthy of that legacy: a place where world-class research, advanced manufacturing and new materials come together.
The headline numbers are hard to ignore:
- 17 million sq ft of flexible employment space across three sites.
- 20,000 new jobs expected at the Northern Gateway alone, where £650m has already been invested.
- 7,000 new homes planned across the zone, including almost 400 already underway as part of the South Heywood Masterplan.
The three sites are Northern Gateway, the largest, sitting where the M60, M62 and M66 meet, Stakehill, one of the North West’s premier distribution locations, home to names like DHL and Footasylum, and Kingsway.
Kingsway: the site next door
Kingsway Business Park covers 3.4 million sq ft at Junction 21 of the M62, which makes it one of the best connected business parks in the country. Manchester city centre is 20 minutes away. Liverpool, Leeds and the ports are straight down the motorway. There’s a dedicated Metrolink station on site, so staff can get in from across Greater Manchester without touching a car.
The park already hosts serious manufacturing, warehousing and logistics operations, with units ranging from 40,000 to 200,000 sq ft and land available for design and build. As Atom Valley gathers pace, Kingsway is set to attract exactly the kind of businesses the cluster was created for: advanced manufacturers, engineering firms, materials specialists and the future tech companies that grow up around them.
A section of the Northern Gateway will also house the Advanced Machinery and Productivity Institute (AMPI), designed to drive innovation for the UK’s advanced machinery manufacturers. That’s not a vague ambition. It’s a national institute being built a few miles from Rochdale town centre.
Why we’re excited about it
BM Technologies has grown up in this area. We’ve built our business supporting SMEs across Greater Manchester and the North West, and a lot of our clients are exactly the kind of firms Atom Valley wants more of: engineers, manufacturers, care providers, professional services.
Innovation clusters live or die on their supporting infrastructure. It’s not just about big sheds and motorway junctions. Every business that moves into Kingsway or the Northern Gateway will need robust IT, secure networks, connectivity that doesn’t fall over, and cyber security that meets the standards their supply chains now demand. Manufacturers in particular are under growing pressure, both from clients requiring Cyber Essentials and cyber security support and from the UK’s incoming Cyber Security and Resilience legislation.
That’s where firms like ours come in, and it’s why we see Atom Valley as good news for the whole local business community, not just the companies taking the big units. Growth on this scale pulls demand through everything around it: suppliers, subcontractors, trades, professional services, hospitality. Rochdale has spent a long time being talked about as a place with potential. Atom Valley is the potential being built.
What this means if you run a business locally
A few practical thoughts from where we’re sitting:
Supply chains are forming now. The businesses landing in Atom Valley will need local suppliers. If your firm could serve advanced manufacturing or engineering clients, it’s worth positioning for that early rather than waiting until the units are full.
Standards will rise. Larger manufacturers increasingly require their suppliers to demonstrate cyber security credentials before they’ll trade with them. If you want a seat at that table, getting your house in order now is a competitive advantage, not a compliance chore. Our Rate My Cyber assessment tool is a quick place to start if you want a clearer view of your current risk.
Talent will follow. Thousands of new jobs and homes change the local labour market. Businesses that can offer modern, flexible, well-equipped ways of working will find it easier to attract the people arriving with the growth.
We’re here, and we’re local
We didn’t move here to chase Atom Valley. We were here first. Our office is in Milnrow, ten minutes from Kingsway, and we’ve been providing managed IT and cyber security to businesses across Rochdale and Greater Manchester on a simple flat-rate model since day one.
If your business is moving into the area, growing because of what’s happening around Kingsway, or just wants to be ready for it, we’d genuinely love to talk. And if you want to see the full vision for yourself, the official Atom Valley site is worth ten minutes of your time.
Tomorrow is being built at the end of our road. We plan to be part of it.
BM Technologies is a managed IT and cyber security provider based in Milnrow, Rochdale, supporting SMEs across Greater Manchester and the North West. Tech That Works.
Contact BM Technologies if you want to get your IT, connectivity or cyber security ready for the opportunities around Atom Valley.
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