Jaguar Land Rover to double size of i54 factory with 700 jobs
Jaguar Land Rover is to double the size of its i54 engine plant in Wolverhampton taking the total workforce at the factory to around 1,500, it was revealed today.
Construction work 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 expansion of the site, on the border of South Staffordshire, comes in the wake of surging demand for its Jaguars and Land Rovers around the world which saw JLR break sales records last year.
Gavin Williamson, MP for South Staffordshire, said today: “The extra £150m that’s going to be invested on top of £355m to double the size of employment will be a massive boost for Staffordshire and the Black Country.
“This will be half a billion pounds of investment and is something we all welcome.
“It is incredible to think that the already overwhelmingly positive effects of this engine plant will be doubled.”
The company has previously said the factory would create more than 700 jobs, with another 200 working for maintenance, catering and cleaning firms.
But, with already massive demand for its cars expected to increase, the company is now 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 current engine 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.
But JLR has already decided that it needs the factory to double in size, creating a total of 1,500 jobs on the site.
Neither Wolverhampton nor South Staffordshire councils were prepared to comment today ahead of an official statement expected overnight.
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 building 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 new 201,000 sq ft factory which opened last summer.
Wolverhampton food testing company Eurofins has also moved onto bigger premises built on the site.
In addition, the huge United Technologies Corporation aviation components factory, formerly Goodrich Actuation Systems, on Stafford Road, is just a short distance away.
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 – due to be formally handed over in November.
Business editor Simon Penfold looks at the rise and rise of Jaguar Land Rover – See today's Express & Star
Comments for: "Jaguar Land Rover to double size of i54 factory with 700 jobs"
Steve Thomas
And how many of these jobs will go to Wolverhampton people I wonder?
None the Romanians and Bulgarians will be here by then
fickle
idiotic comment. if someone is prepared to work hard and somebody else is work shy, who would you choose?
Nigel
Whoever comes in at the lowest price obviously . . . If Slovak Jack will work for minimum wage whereas a skilled british man/woman values themself that little more - well its a no-brainer really isn't it. Train the immigrant to work the same job but lower pay. Its called the British Government gentlemen and we, the taxpayer, have voted them in.
Neil
Is it a rule that only cynical comments are allowed on this website? It's almost understandable on the Wolves articles, but this is good news.
Please get behind the companies that want to invest in the city. The future of Wolverhampton depends on companies like Jaguar.
Marti
I'm looking at moving back to Wolves after not being about to find a job, do I count as a Wolverhampton person?
John Ellis
That all depends on if there are are people in Wolverhampton with the knowledge and skills to do the work.
scott
Does`nt matter where you come from, if you are able to do the job you should apply!
E
and how many of those jobs will still be available once India starts building full cars as announced today.....pffffttt, camerons jolly to india last week worked out nicely for him didnt it.
ANNIE B
Steve, none, as the years of Labour misrule means a generation of dolts have emerged from our schools, barely literate; The jobs will go to those sacked from Honda in Swindon, that's why JLR have acted fast to get them on board; Expect plenty of coach travel from Wiltshire to Wolverhampton!
Dave
Will just have to wait,
To see how many people from Wolverhampton gain full time employment?
optimist
6
Mark Robinson
I'm very happy for the job creation side of this, but I have to ask how quickly this 'development' has made it through the planning process?
Did JLR know that the site was ultimately going to be this size and just get planning permission for the smaller development - knowing that a latter development would just be a rubber-stamp?
The existing factory is an EYESORE on the landscape - ruining views with monolithic buildings and bright lights. This and the Four Ashes recycling plant have destroyed the countryside in the area.
Why not insist the plant is built a few meters down - limiting its impact?
Just to make it visible from the M54 no doubt - a sad day for the green belt
Mark Robinson
...and don't get me started about the monstrosity that is Featherstone 2!
matt
when moog built the factory and the employees have been in it just over a year now,the onus was on preserving the wildlife on the site.people have written into the e and s commenting how well this has been preserved and lets just hope jlr have the same thing in mind,if i remember it was put back three weeks last year due to an number of endangered newts on the site and if im right volunteers collected thousands to be moved somewhere else.also all of the trees on the stafford road have been covered in nets to stop birds nesting as these trees will have to be removed when the carriageway is opened so all in all i think the i54 can only benefit people of wolverhampton so stop moaning,get training and get your cv into jaguar.you never know.
PJW Holland
Calm down dears! It is not until 2020. Much water will pass under the bridge before then.
It is good news but remember that eight times as many used to be employed just to make the tyres for the cars. About as many were employed creating the steel panels for the bodywork.... etc.
I would be alarmed if suddenly the jobs lost were replaced. Rapid expansion usually precedes extinction.... The Southsea Bubble effect. This proposal suggests the creation of an average of 200 jobs per annum... around 0.1% of the jobs market in Wolverhampton travel to work area. What Wolverhampton really needs is to persuade the various offices that have moved out to the green borders to return to the City Centre and hence the City Centre might be revived.
Don't let us deny, though, this is very definitely a step in the right direction.
spoonio
and where does one apply for these jobs, I look online and all I find is exective jobs?
Nigel
Lets hope you know one (or more) of the executives in there then as i feel this is the only way you're going to get a look in. either that or take a flight from the EU somewhere
Rick
You can only give jobs to people in wolverhampton if they have the skills required - this wont be 1500 manual labour jobs for knuckle draggers.....
The Four Ashes recycling plant is ugly yes, but would you rather we just made another landfill site?
Cities need to expand to cover the increasing population, if you want countryside there is more than enough as you head towards the welsh border....
Nick Winters
Great news for Wolverhampton.
A pity we dont have the skilled engineers to work there now! Hopefully there will be lots of apprentice schemes for all the kids at school though so they can benefit from it being there even if their parents can't.
soggy_wolf
I went for a job interview at a local Foundry last year..... they wanted me to swear to undying loyalty to their firm for the rest of my career. When I asked they revealed that they had laid off half their workforce a few years earlier in the latest economic downturn, and that new lending now enabled them to expand their workforce again.... so I was taking the job of someone who had gone back then. Why the hell should I agree to this rubbish when, the next time there's any sort of economic downturn or the government funding dries up, I will be the first to be sent down the road like the guy before me?
This smacks of the JLR situation. Some government so-and-so somewhere has done an under-the-table deal with the JLR owners to create jobs in the UK for a set period, but when that agreement finishes it's all going to disappear off to somewhere like Bangladesh or maybe even Africa by then. The workers there already are mindless drones, which is exactly what employers seem to want nowadays; unthinking automatons with no personality who will do as their told; the last thing they want are people with initiative who might risk rocking the boat to improve the company (not unless you have the right masters degree with matching salary anyway). The main plus the JLR apprentices have to say about their jobs are that "it's a big company" (which any person with any sort of life experience or common sense will tell you is not a plus anyway), that's the level of imagination JLR are looking for..... which is probably the best you can hope for from a lot of Wolverhampton people I suppose.
Damn it, I should have become a banker like my cousins and stuck my nose in with theirs in the taxpayer money trough.
Dutch Wolf
It gets just a touch ridiculous to read these sort of responses.
Wolverhampton people might not get the jobs? Then get trained and up for it!
Romanians and Bulgarians? Racist garbage - just look at Wolverhampton's history! Blame the Welsh, the Jamaicans, the Indians, the Pakistanis.
Blame Cameron! I am Labour through and through. What do you want? That he influences the Indians to put the jobs in Germany, Kent or Wiltshire, or simply doesn't bother?
Blame Wiltshire workers. Oh yeah, just like Wolverhampton had problems in the past becasue of Birmingham airport and Brummies. It's all WBA fans fault that our Wolves are rubbish. Etc, etc. Dear me!
Sad day for the Green Belt? What Green Belt? Sooo NIMBY. A few acres of farmer's fields protected so the investors could get higher land values for when they eventually get permission to sell the land. That's what Green Belt is, and that's your pension or investment return! That's your kids future.
Wolverhampton has to be part of the modern world. This project, just like Morgan's investments at the MOL and in Compton, are all part of our city moving forward. The alternative is... just waiting for an answer...
Dave
Well said Dutch!
Some good news for Wolverhampton and the nay-sayers can't resist the chance to pooh pooh it. If a Romanian or Bulgarian that can barely speak the language gets the job ahead of you, then it's going to be because they're more employable than you, either through skills, experience or willingness to work. People go on about the younger generation thinking the world owes them something, what about all the people who just assume that they should get jobs coming up without bothering to upskill or prepare themselves for the interview?
I can't wait for this, hopefully it'll bring more money into the area and provide work and a living for apprentices. I hear loads about how apprenticeships made this country as great as it was so fingers crossed it'll help return it to it's former glory!
Antonia
Any one have any idea which recruitment consultancy will be recruiting on behalf of Jag ?