Ten years in Birmingham – a milestone for Minebea Intec UK

In 2026, Minebea Intec is marking ten years since relocating to its UK head office in Birmingham. Over the last decade, the manufacturer of industrial weighing and inspection technologies has delivered innovative solutions for customers operating across a range of sectors, bringing performance, safety, and efficiency gains to production processes throughout the country.

Peter Walker, country manager UK & Ireland, explains the evolution of the business over the past decade, reflects on milestone moments, and ponders on what could lie in store for the next ten years.

“We moved to Birmingham when the industrial weighing division of Sartorius was sold to MinebeaMitsumi and, as a result, we needed to move. As we had the choice to go anywhere, we did a lot of research and found that this location would be excellent for both our customers and our colleagues in Ireland due the cost and frequency of flights between Dublin and Birmingham. We only occupied the ground floor initially”, explains Peter.

He continues “The early years were quite new for us. We came away from an office of roughly 200 people and into one that had only 20, comprising of the industrial weighing team. We also had to incorporate quite a few new team members at the time too.”

Birmingham Business Park is next to the NEC, just a few minutes away from the International Train Station, five minutes away from the airport, and soon to be just a couple of minutes away from HS2. The company location makes it easy for customers both north and south to get to.

Ten years of change

“One of the biggest changes we’ve noticed, is that there are fewer project staff operating within our customers’ businesses these days” explains Peter. “Those who do get involved seem to need more proof of concept and they have less budget, so are a little more careful about what they buy. That’s actually been good for us because we’ve got our showroom and demonstration area so we can bring people in, prove the concept, show them the equipment, and conduct product testing. By inviting potential customers in, they can see that we provide the whole package. That’s the benefit of being a manufacturer.”

Memorable milestones

Just before the time of Covid, the company began to assemble labelling systems in their Birmingham workshop which allowed them to expand, taking over the upper floor of the building as well as the ground floor. The business park was quite empty due to the pandemic, so it was a favourable time to be expanding. They moved offices to the upper floor and converted the lower floor into a workshop space and showroom area.

Over the last few years, the company has been really focused on upgrading their checkweighers and scales systems to feature new interfaces to meet the more modern demands of the industry. The expanded space has facilitated more demonstration and testing areas.

They also have a small office in Dublin to represent Irish customers with an expanding team of four directly employed engineers, which is quite unique for the industry.

Customer expectations

During the last 10 years, customer expectations have also changed; Peter Walker explains, “They’re looking for more of a partnership now rather than just a piece of equipment. Customers today require a lot more supporting evidence to go with machines – things like sustainability documentation and credentials about our business and our accreditations. I think they really want to know that we’re going to be there for the long haul to support them”.

10 years of changing trends

Another change that’s occurred since the move to Birmingham is the requests for connectivity of machinery. The company’s new Blue HMI has completely revolutionised the user experience offering more consistency, connectivity and security than ever before. Staff can move between machinery seamlessly, they can control passwords and access to equipment and see an audit trail of who’s used it.

Peter explains “We are expanding this across our entire product range. Because we’ve got a wide portfolio – everything from checkweighing through to weighing vessels outside the factory and scales in the warehouse – we will eventually have the same interface across all those pieces of equipment. That will make staff training a lot easier. If you have somebody leaving production, someone from pre-production or the warehouse will know how to operate that machinery because it’s a common interface.”

Another trend that’s become more apparent over the 10 years are the challenges that customers have experienced with either recruiting or retaining staff. The team have had to respond by ensuring that every opportunity for automation has been realised which in some cases has enabled customers to reduce overhead costs.

Latest innovations

In 2025 Minebea Intec launched the MiNexx^®series of scales comprising three weight indicators and weighing platforms. The devices are designed for precise weight measurement in manual to automated processes and, thanks to their versatile combination options, are suitable for almost any industrial environment and weighing challenge.

The team in the UK have been busy demonstrating these new products to customers and will be showcasing them at forthcoming shows including interpack in May and PPMA in September 2026.

The future

The intention for the future is to keep expanding and keeping ahead of the curve on innovations. Something that works well for the UK team is their ability to technically demonstrate these advantages to customers by using their facilities in their showroom. Peter concluded “We like to demonstrate and test with customers’ own products and form the partnership that they’re looking for. The goal is to become the trusted partner for all of our customers”.

Celebrations

The company is planning a series of events and occasions to mark their 10 years in Birmingham where they’ll celebrate their achievements with partners, customers and other stakeholders.