Hills will relocate its South Australian Innovation Centres, product teams and shared support service functions from Port Road in Hindmarsh to the new Tonsley Park precinct by the end of the year.
The company will occupy part of the new six-storey, 18,000 m2 Flinders University building at Tonsley, due to officially open in January 2015.
“The move to Tonsley has been under consideration for some time and reflects our need for more collaborative space to support new product development, create new jobs and drive new revenue streams,” said Hills Group Managing Director and CEO Ted Pretty.
Professor Michael Barber, Vice-Chancellor, said, “Flinders at Tonsley will be a place where our students interact with business and where business interacts with our researchers in areas such as engineering, medical devices and nanoscale technologies, to make the new products and processes of the 21st century.
“The co-location of Hills at our Tonsley site will accelerate the opportunities for collaboration under our proposed Tonsley Technology Alliance, not only with Flinders but also other institutions.” Hills will also seek assistance through the federal government’s Next Generation Manufacturing Investment Programme to move additional medical technology development activities into SA and Tonsley. If successful, this could see Hills develop and manufacture new medical devices in South Australia.