Mansell Building Solutions expands with new headquarters in Oldham, and opens the region’s first dedicated MMC Centre to scale housing delivery.
- Mansell officially opens new 45,000 sq ft headquarters in Oldham – 50% larger than its previous site in Bolton
- Launch marked by a visit from Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and Aisling McCourt, Head of Housing Growth and Net Zero for Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA)
- New MMC Centre provides a full-scale, life-size prototype for early design and risk reduction
- Facility boosts scalable local manufacturing capacity and skilled local job creation
- Supports Greater Manchester’s housing ambitions through faster, safer, more certain delivery
Oldham, Greater Manchester – Mansell Building Solutions has officially opened its new headquarters and MMC Centre in Oldham, marking a major milestone for modern construction in Greater Manchester and setting out a blueprint for faster, safer and more certain housing delivery across the city region.
Located at Broadway Business Park, the 45,000 sq ft site is 50% larger than Mansell’s previous facility and significantly increases its capacity to manufacture panelised light gauge steel frames for residential, care, student and education projects across the North of England.
The move to the bigger premises in Chadderton also introduces Mansell’s new MMC Centre – a full-scale, life-size prototype of a completed MMC build. Unlike traditional showrooms, the Centre reveals how early engagement and factory-first construction works in practice, allowing designers, councils, contractors, end users, developers, architects to see real build details, understand interfaces, and resolve issues before projects ever reach site. By enabling early, design-led collaboration, the Centre is intended to reduce risk, improve quality and accelerate delivery.
Established in 1991, Mansell is the only MMC manufacturer based in Greater Manchester, positioning Oldham as a hub for industrialised housing delivery and strengthening the region’s capability to support major developments such as Atom Valley and wider regeneration programmes.
The launch was marked by a visit from Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and Aisling McCourt, GMCA’s Head of Housing Growth and Net Zero, who toured the production line and MMC Centre with managing director Angela Mansell and met local factory staff. During the visit, the Mayor discussed how factory-first construction can help Greater Manchester meet its housing ambitions while creating skilled local jobs and reducing carbon, waste and programme risk.
Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham said:“We want everyone in Greater Manchester to have a good, warm, safe place they can call home – and we’re focused on delivering the thousands of new homes that our city region needs. It’s clear when you walk around a facility like this, and see the approach here, that doing more of the work off-site can help accelerate that process and make a real difference to our mission.
“Building homes also means creating new opportunities for good, skilled jobs across our towns and cities, and clear pathways into construction for young people. When you can build homes and create those opportunities at the same time – that’s what good growth looks like for Greater Manchester.”
Building certainty, faster
Mansell’s approach centres on early, design-led engagement – investing more time at the outset to save time, cost and complexity on site. By shifting key stages of construction into a controlled factory environment, the company is able to improve predictability on programme, quality and cost, while reducing reliance on scarce on-site trades and exposure to weather disruption.
Since 2018, Mansell has helped create more than 5,500 homes and living spaces across residential, care, student and leisure sectors, with over 65% of its work coming from repeat clients – a reflection of the trust placed in its factory-first model.
The MMC Centre: A regional asset for housing delivery
The MMC Centre is designed to act as more than a demonstration space. It will be used for CPD sessions with councils, architects and engineers, early design workshops with developers and contractors, and skills engagement with colleges and training providers. By bringing key stakeholders together around a tangible, built example, Mansell aims to embed MMC earlier in project planning and reduce the risk of costly redesign later in the process.
Angela Mansell, managing director of Mansell Building Solutions, said: “Our bigger factory and MMC Centre are about much more than bricks and steel – they are about building certainty for Greater Manchester at the scale and speed it needs.
“The region is already making strong progress towards meeting its ambitious housebuilding targets. But to maintain this momentum, and ensure there is no compromise on quality, safety or sustainability, MMC is essential. Factory-first delivery creates certainty across the board on cost and quality, allowing for predictability at scale. We are filling our factory providing homes in the North East, Merseyside and across the North West – but feel there is more opportunity on our door step to build more.
“By bringing people into the heart of how modern construction works, we can design risk out earlier, build faster, and create better jobs locally. This facility shows that MMC isn’t theoretical, it is happening here, right now, in Oldham.”
Local jobs, local impact
Mansell’s factory supports process-driven roles that are less physically demanding and more technically specialised than traditional site work, helping to attract new talent into construction, including young people, women and career changers. The company has already created new local roles in Oldham since relocating and is working with further education partners and regeneration initiatives to build a pipeline of skilled workers for the future.
