Welwyn Garden City - Economy

Economy

Ever since its inception as garden city, Welwyn Garden City has attracted a strong commercial base with several designated employment areas. Among the companies trading in the town are:

• Baxters
• British Lead Mills
• Carl Zeiss
• The Danish Bacon Company (DBC foodservice)
• Emis Professional Publishing
• Figleaves.com
• Roche
• IBM
• PayPoint
• Ratcliff Palfinger
• Schering-Plough
• Sigma Corporation
• Tesco
• VEGA Group
• Welwyn Tool Group (formerly Welwyn Tool Company)
• Xerox

Tesco has a head office at Shire Park, a business park in the north of the town, including a full-size supermarket mock-up for staff training.

The Hertfordshire Constabulary has its headquarters in the town.

Welwyn Garden City was once well known as the home of the breakfast cereal Shredded Wheat, formerly made by Nabisco. The disused Shredded Wheat factory with its large white silos is a landmark on rail routes between London and the north of England. The factory, designed by de Soissons and built in 1924 by Peter Lind & Company, is a Grade II listed building. Cereal production moved to Staverton, Wiltshire in 2008 when the owner, Nestlé, decided that the factory required significant and prohibitive investment, due to the age of the building. Tesco had made a planning application for a store, leisure facilities and offices on the site but this was turned down.

The former supermarket chain Fine Fare had its head office in the town at one time, as did ICI's Plastics Division. In 1929 Sir Henry Birkin built the first supercharged Blower Bentley car at his engineering works in Broadwater Road.

During World War II the Special Operations Executive (SOE) had a research department in the town, the Inter-Services Research Bureau, which developed the Welrod pistol and the Welgun sub-machinegun. Station IX was a secret SOE factory making commando equipment at the old Frythe Hotel.

Welwyn Garden City's proximity to London makes it a convenient commuter town.