page_title: East of England
section_title: Bedfordshire
hierarchical_section_title: East of England / Economy / Bedfordshire
caption_attribution_description: English: Samuel Whitbread (1720-1796) by Sir Joshua Reynolds
context_page_description: The East of England is one of nine official regions of England situated at the first level of the European Union's Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics. NUTS is an administrative structure for referencing the subdivisions of countries for statistical purposes. This structure was given its current form in 2018 and revised in 2020 to account for changes in EU membership. The East of England region was created in 1994 and adopted for statistics purposes from 1999. It includes the ceremonial counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. Essex has the highest population in the region.
  The population of the East of England region at the 2011 census was 5,847,000.
  Bedford, Luton, Basildon, Peterborough, Southend-on-Sea, Norwich, Ipswich, Colchester, Chelmsford and Cambridge are the region's most populous towns. The southern part of the region lies in the London commuter belt.
context_section_description: Moto Hospitality has its headquarters at Toddington in Bedfordshire (at the Toddington services).
  Luton is home to EasyJet,(based at the airport), Hain Celestial Group (which makes Linda McCartney Foods, and is based on the B579 in Biscot), Eurolines (UK office), Thomson Holidays (based at Wigmore on the eastern edge of the town), and Chevrolet (at Griffin House, the Vauxhall head office). At the 85-acre Capability Green off the A1081 and junction 10a of the M1, is the Stonegate Pub Company (owner of Scream Pubs, Yates's, Slug and Lettuce and Hogshead), InBev UK (which bought most of Whitbread's beer brands), Chargemaster (electric vehicle network under the POLAR brand), AstraZeneca's UK Marketing Company division, and Alexon Group (ladies clothing). Vauxhall produced its last Vauxhall Vectra in March 2002 at the plant near the A6/A505 roundabout, and now makes vans (Vivaro/Renault Trafic) at the former Bedford Vehicles plant, based in the north of the town at the GM Manufacturing Luton plant. 
  Near Luton railway station, Comau Estil is a manufacturing systems integrator for car manufacturers. Elster Metering makes gas and electricity meters, and is based in the north of Luton on the opposite side of the railway to Vauxhall. GKN Aerospace Transparency Systems (formerly Pilkington Aerospace before 2003), the world's leading manufacturer of military aircraft canopies, which also makes ice protection systems, is at Luton Airport. ArjoHuntleigh, based on the A505 in Luton near the M1, is a leading medical equipment manufacturer, and nearby, Certwood made the plastic seats for London's Olympic Stadium. Premier Inn (owned by Whitbread) is headquartered, with the UK headquarters of Electrolux (owner of AEG and Zanussi), in Leagrave, north Luton. Its neighbour in Dunstable is home to Whitbread and Polestar, a main magazine printers.
  Bedford is home to Fujifilm and Wells & Young's Brewery (formerly Charles Wells). Danfoss Randall makes heating controls on the A6 next to Bedford St Johns railway station, and boxclever is south of the town on the A6. Autoglass is in nearby Cardington.
  Hunter Engineering (defence) was at Ampthill. Amazon has its main distribution centre for England (its first in the UK, established in May 1999) at the ProLogis Marston Gate site at Brogborough near junction 13 of the M1 (A421) next to Ridgmont railway station. Hanson Building Products was the largest producer of aggregates in the world, being taken over by HeidelbergCement in August 2007, and has always been based at Stewartby off the A421 south of Bedford next to the railway station. Kier Group and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds are in Sandy. Connells and UltraVision are in Leighton Buzzard. Leisure Connection is in Wyboston, towards St Neots. Jordans (cereal), AMG Systems (electronics) and Liebherr Group are in Biggleswade. Trafficmaster Europe and Saab Great Britain are at Cranfield University. Unilever has its main food research site (where low fat spreads were invented) at Colworth Science Park near Sharnbrook.
caption: Samuel Whitbread began his brewery in Bedfordshire in 1742
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