Engineering news
Gestamp, a company specialising in the design, development and manufacture of metal automotive components, is to build a new £70 million manufacturing facility near Wolverhampton in the West Midlands.
The 50,000sq m plant, which will house hot stamping equipment, will safeguard the 800 jobs at Gestamp’s current Cannock plant as production is moved to the new facility. The company said a transfer servo press line, also known as XL press, will provide a better service to customers in the region including BMW, Honda, JLR, Nissan-Renault and Toyota.
The project has been supported by local Stoke on Trent & Staffordshire LEP, Staffordshire County Council, Cannock Chase District Council and the Department for International Trade in the form of the Automotive Investment Organisation (AIO).
Ian Middleton, Gestamp country manager in the UK, said: “We have been working on this project for a long time. The United Kingdom is one of Gestamp top five global markets since the beginning of our operations here in 2011.
“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 said that once completed, the annual turnover of the new plant will surpass £140 million per year. Part of the existing facilities in Cannock may be retained to accommodate future training and development requirements, the company added.
Production at the new plant is due to start before the end of 2017.