page_title: Welwyn Garden City
section_title: Economy
hierarchical_section_title: Welwyn Garden City / Economy
caption_attribution_description: English: The "Shredded Wheat" factory, Welwyn Garden City. This famous landmark on the main railway line to the north will cease production over the next year and will then be demolished.
context_page_description: Welwyn Garden City is a town in Hertfordshire, England. It is located approximately 20 miles from Kings Cross, London. Welwyn Garden City was the second garden city in England and one of the first new towns.
  It is unique in being both a garden city and a new town and exemplifies the physical, social and cultural planning ideals of the periods in which it was built.
context_section_description: Ever since its inception as a garden city, Welwyn Garden City has attracted a strong commercial base with several designated employment areas. Among the companies trading in the town are:
  Henleys Medical Supplies Ltd
  Baxters
  British Lead Mills
  Cashbrokers
  The Danish Bacon Company (DBC foodservice)
  Emis Professional Publishing
  Figleaves.com
  HSBC's high-security global data centre
  Roche
  Ocado
  PayPoint
  Ratcliff Palfinger
  Duncan Print Group
  Sigma Corporation
  Tesco has its head office at Shire Park, a business park in the north-east of the town.  The site was once an ICI chemical works.  Tesco gradually moved there from the late 1990s and has now closed its original Cheshunt head office in favour of additional Shire Park buildings.
  VEGA Group
  Welwyn Tool Group (formerly Welwyn Tool Company)
  Xerox
  Hertfordshire County Council's county supplies and contract services centre
  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 applied to build a new supermarket on the site, but planning permission was refused by the local authority in January 2012 after significant public protest. In December 2018, the newly renamed "Wheat Quarter" area had planning permission approved for complete area redevelopment, consisting of 1,454 units, mainly homes, as well as office, retail and community uses.
  The former supermarket chain Fine Fare had its head office in the town at one time, as did ICI's Plastics Division.
  There is now a redeveloped and enlarged Sainsbury's in the town centre, and a Morrisons in Panshanger along Black Fan Road.
  Welwyn Garden City's proximity to London makes it a convenient commuter town.
caption: The Shredded Wheat factory as it was in 2007 while still in operation.  The landmark Shredded Wheat sign, visible from trains arriving in Welwyn Garden City, has now been removed.
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