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Barclays Manufacturing Team Forms Partnership With Warwick Manufacturing Group

Earlier this year Barclays underlined its long-term commitment to UK manufacturing by announcing £500 million of lending to support growing businesses within the sector. This month it has taken that commitment to manufacturing a step further by joining forces with the Warwick Manufacturing Group at the University of Warwick, the UK's premier manufacturing education group, to further hone the manufacturing knowledge of its Relationship Directors.

Demonstrating the bank's strong and clear focus on the industry, the decision to use Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) is reflective of its desire to provide its Relationship Directors with an ongoing and comprehensive industry education programme, which it believes will ultimately be of benefit to its manufacturing customers. The training provided by WMG will encompass subjects such as lean manufacturing, supply chain management, best practice, innovation and off shoring.

Andy Martin, National Director for Manufacturing at Barclays, said: "The decision to provide training of this sort reflects just how much we value the benefit of industry knowledge when it comes to our relationship with our customers. Manufacturing is a very broad fast moving sector and we need to understand better how manufacturing is changing. Working alongside WMG will allow us to do this and leave us better placed to work proactively with our customers and help them to generate value through their operations."

Speaking of Warwick's association with Barclays Professor Lord Bhattacharyya, Director of WMG said, "We are delighted to be working with one of Britain's premier financial institutions. Barclays is dedicated to manufacturing success and that is a dedication we share. We will be working with Barclays to improve the knowledge base of its manufacturing relationship directors and that can only be good for manufacturing clients."

WMG, established in 1980 by Professor Lord Bhattacharyya, has over 480 staff and works closely in partnership with leading industrial organisations such as BAE Systems, JCB, Rolls Royce and Ford Premier Auto Group with the aim of improving competitiveness through the application of value adding innovation, new technologies and practices, and skills deployment.

For further information contact:

Nick Matthews, Warwick Manufacturing Group, University of Warwick 024 76 572 506

Peter Dunn, Press and Media Relations Manager,
University of Warwick Tel: 024 76 523708
or 07767 655860 email: p.j.dunn@warwick.ac.uk

PR73 PJD 11th October 2005