The largest and oldest of Livingston's industrial parks, the Houstoun Industrial Estate occupies an area of 122 ha / 300 acres to the east of the town, centred a half-mile (1 km) northwest of Pumpherston. Developed from 1963, it is now home to more than 100 large and small factories and business units, many designed by the Livingston Development Corporation, including the immense Wyman-Gordon forge, Elementis Specialities with its metal-clad tower, the Scottish headquarters of Mitsubishi Electric, a telecommunications training centre and a large goods vehicle driving test centre.
Wyman-Gordon took over Cameron Iron Works forged products division in 1994 and makes specialist components for the aerospace and energy industries. The plant includes a unique 30,000-ton hydraulic press. Cameron Iron Works was headquartered in Houston in the USA, and their presence is said to have been the source of the alternative spelling for the industrial estate's name, except that spelling appears on maps published before the 1930s. The works had made components for the supersonic passenger aircraft Concorde. Elementis Specialities began as Abbey Chemicals and produces raw materials for the cosmetics industry. Mitsubishi Electric employs around 600 people here, at a research and development centre, and manufacturing air-conditioning units and heat pumps.
