Shropshire Star

Jaguar Land Rover to double size of factory

Jaguar Land Rover is to double the size of its i54 engine plant between Telford and Wolverhampton creating an extra 700 jobs.

Published

Construction is under way on the £355 million factory at the i54 business park, but it today emerged that the firm will pump in another £150m to pay for a huge expansion. The site is situated just off Junction 2 of the M54.

Today's expansion news comes in the wake of surging demand for its vehicles around the world which saw JLR break sales records last year.

The company says the new expansion will take the final jobs total for the plant to 1,500 – more than double the 700 posts originally anticipated.

The company is planning to double the output from the engine factory to supply its next generation of smaller cars with newly developed four cylinder diesel and petrol engines.

Unconfirmed figures suggest JLR could be aiming to hit sales of around 600,000 by 2020.

The news was welcomed this afternoon by Telford MP David Wright, who said: "This is extremely good news for the region. i54 is very close to Telford and I hope local people will get a shot at the jobs.

"I hope it can also secure more jobs for Telford companies in the supply chain."

The current factory is not due to start rolling out production engines until early 2015 and the first workers will not move into completed areas until late summer.

JLR is expected to announce the news officially at a press conference tomorrow.

The existing factory plans include two huge halls each the size of three football pitches. But the i54 development site has enough room to build a similar sized plant virtually next door to the existing site. Although planners have divided the available space up for possible headquarters, office buildings or advanced manufacturing sites, they are expected to welcome an expansion of JLR's engine factory, which currently extends over 828,000 sq ft.

It would make the i54 a major engineering hub for the region, with aerospace company Moog already working at its 201,000 sq ft factory which opened last summer.

The boss of the new JLR factory, former Jaguar factory operations chief Ken Close, said recruitment for the plant was already under way. Construction company Interserve is already putting the roof on the two buildings that make up the factory.

Mr Close said the first JLR staff will start working at the site full-time in the late summer, starting to install production machinery while Interserve completes the building – with a date set for November.

He said he was working with the local councils on boosting engineering opportunities and skills training for youngsters.

"We are here for the long term and will be constantly hiring new people," he said.

Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article.