A Cheltenham-headquartered engineering group (formerly Spirax-Sarco Engineering) that makes steam, electric heating and pump technology for industry, food, medicine and energy.
Spirax Group, known until June 2024 as Spirax-Sarco Engineering, is an engineering company based in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. It has three businesses. Steam Thermal Solutions makes the valves, traps and controls that manage steam, which factories use for cleaning, sterilising, cooking and heating. Electric Thermal Solutions supports the move from fossil fuels to electric heating in industry, and also makes freeze protection and defrost products for aircraft and space equipment. Watson-Marlow Fluid Technology Solutions makes peristaltic pumps, which move liquids gently by squeezing a tube, and are used for things like vaccines and gene therapies.
The business began in 1888 when Herman Sanders set up in London and imported thermostatic steam traps from Germany, trading as 'Sarco'. In 1932 it started making steam traps itself under the Spirax name. It joined the London Stock Exchange in 1959 and bought Watson-Marlow in 1990. Watson-Marlow itself dates from 1956, when inventor Bernard Refson developed a practical peristaltic pump in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, before the company moved to Falmouth, Cornwall, in 1969. In 2022 the group stopped all business in Russia after the invasion of Ukraine.
The group's stated purpose is to 'create sustainable value for all our stakeholders as we engineer a more efficient, safer and sustainable world'. Its core values are Safety, Collaboration, Customer Focus, Excellence, Respect and Integrity. It presents its products as helping industry move towards net zero. Much of its selling is done by its own engineers working directly with customers, which the company has done since the 1950s. All of this is the company's own description.
The head office and much of the engineering and research are in Cheltenham, and a major programme from 2010 brought manufacturing and research together around the town. A Cheltenham office was opened in 2021 and named after a former chairman, Lionel Northcroft. Watson-Marlow is based at Bickland Water Road in Falmouth, where it has expanded its premises over the years, and its own website describes the group as FTSE-listed. Across the world the group has about 10,000 colleagues according to Wikipedia (2026), although a recruitment profile gives a lower figure, so treat headcount as approximate.
People here work in engineering, sales engineering, manufacturing, research and development, software and digital teams, finance, legal and human resources. A recruitment profile says the group employs around 1,300 qualified engineers worldwide and emphasises inclusion, equity and wellbeing, with a wish for people to be 'their authentic selves at work'. If you like chemistry, physics, thermodynamics or just how things work in factories and hospitals, this is a company where those subjects are used every day. The company's own site lists which roles are open at any time.
Website: www.spiraxgroup.com
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