Gestamp says it will plough GBP70m (US$93.3m) into building a new manufacturing facility in Four Ashes near Wolverhampton in the West Midlands region of the UK.
The company maintains the 50,000 square metre plant new West Midlands plant “is designed to safeguard the 800 jobs at Gestamp’s current Cannock plant by progressively moving production to the new facility.”
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A transfer servo press line, also known as XL press, will bring hot stamping technology, providing service to customers in the area, namely BMW, Honda, JLR, Nissan-Renault and Toyota.
Plans are for production to start before the end of 2017, with the facility supported by local Stoke on Trent & Staffordshire Local Enterprise Partnership, Staffordshire County Council, Cannock Chase District Council and the Department for International Trade in the form of the Automotive Investment Organisation (AIO).
“We have been working on this project for a long time. United Kingdom is one of Gestamp [‘s] top 5 global markets since the beginning of our operations here in 2011,” Gestamp UK Country Manager, Ian Middleton.
“Our company is committed to helping our customers in key aspects such as quality, safety and lightweight innovations, therefore Gestamp wants its facilities to utilise the most modern stamping technologies available to fulfil its objectives.”
Gestamp has injected more than GBP180m in its UK plants since 2011, including GBP£30m in the existing Cannock facility.
Once completed, the annual turnover of the new West Midlands plant will surpass GBP140m per year. Part of the existing facilities in Cannock may be retained to accommodate future training and development requirements.
Currently Gestamp, named Gestamp Tallent in the UK due to the acquisition of Tallent in 2011, comprises six production plants in Newcastle, Washington, Aycliffe, where the company also has an R&D centre, Cannock, Llanelli and Fareham.
It has a workforce of 3,600 in Britain, including agency staff.
The UK government’s international trade secretary [minister], Liam Fox, said: “The Midlands Engine is playing an important role in generating local growth, with nearly 15,000 jobs created in the region as a result of overseas investment in 2015-16. This announcement from Gestamp further demonstrates the great confidence international business has in the UK, supported by a GBP5m UK government trade and investment package to help the Midlands Engine keep on firing.”
