JLR?plant will produce engine every 36 seconds

The new £355 million Jaguar Land Rover plant on the Wolverhampton and Staffordshire border will produce an engine every 36 seconds.

JLR bosses said 300,000 four-cylinder petrol and diesel engines would be manufactured a year. Senior purchasing manager Alan Edwards said, as well as creating 750 jobs on site, the plant would support 3,000 new jobs in the supply chain. He said the total investment in the new engine programme would amount to more than £1 billion.

Meanwhile, the winner of the contract to build the factory at the i54 business park will be announced in the next three weeks. Three construction businesses are in the running – Interserve Construction of Erdington, Watford-based Vinci Construction and Bowmer and Kirkland of Belper.

Last year, JLR spent £4.5bn on its supply chain with 60 per cent of that in the UK and 50 per cent in the West Midlands. Mr Edwards said the firm would give local businesses "every chance" to supply the new 828,00sq ft factory.

"There is a real spirit of energy about the West Midlands," he said. "It has the technical capability and the can-do attitude we need. We hope to be a big part of the wider business community here in the next few years."

He said JLR had needed to take control of manufacturing its own engines because its current suppliers were not able to meet growing demand.

"There may be satellite engine facilities in other countries but this engine plant at the i54 will be the home of our engines," he said.

He revealed that the company also had the option to take extra space at the i54 site within the Black Country Enterprise Zone if it was needed.

There is space available for a second plant of equivalent size to be built to the south of the first phase.

Wolverhampton City Council's assistant director for partnership and economy, Keren Jones, said the partnership of local authorities and business organisations working with JLR would be helping to develop the construction supply chain .