THIS week’s deep dive into the Telegraph’s photographic archives will bring back memories of one of Greenock’s biggest employers.
IBM – International Business Machines – opened in Spango Valley in 1954 and was a leading light in the ‘Silicon Glen’ electronics revolution.
Our archive photograph, taken in May 1998, shows the IBM call centre and car park.
(Image: Newsquest) Today’s image shows the area of green space which has developed since the call centre – which was the last remaining building on the site – was demolished in 2020.
International Business Machines, founded by Tom Watson, produced typewriters and other office equipment when it first opened in Greenock in 1954.
Secretary of State for Scotland William Ross officially opened a £350,000 extension to the plant in 1967.
From the 1960s until the 1990s, buildings were added to the site and the business moved into manufacturing bank terminals and personal computers.
At its peak, the Greenock factory employed more than 5,000 people.
During the late 1990s, the global manufacturing giant began to switch its operations elsewhere, and the Inverclyde workforce steadily reduced.
(Image: Newsquest) IBM started to demolish buildings on the Spango site in around 2008-09, and around this time, the site and remaining buildings were sold by IBM and rebranded as Valley Park.
By 2013, all remaining Spango staff had moved into a new site in Pottery Street.
But in 2023, all of the jobs in the business park were moved up to Glasgow.
The Spango Valley site is now being earmarked for a £250million mixed-use development, including retail, leisure, commercial units, and 450 houses.
