$8bn business sets up base in Coventry to be close to Jaguar Land Rover

AN AUTOMOTIVE components firm has opened an office in Coventry to be closer to one of its biggest clients.

BorgWarner, a multi-national company whose manufacturing UK base is in Bradford, has taken space at the University of Warwick Science Park’s Business Innovation Centre in Binley.

The US-owned, Fortune 500 company has made the decision so it can be close to major customer Jaguar Land Rover.

BorgWarner employs 25,000 staff globally and specialises in developing and manufacturing components focused on fuel economy and emissions reduction.

It is a supplier to all of the world’s major vehicle manufacturers and had sales of $8.3bn in 2014.

Tony Allen, BorgWarner UK’s managing director, said: “Our new Coventry office will be utilised by our applications engineers, design engineers and sales people from multiple divisions.

“They will support our development work with Jaguar Land Rover on multiple turbocharger, emissions control and powertrain systems.

“We chose an office at the Science Park for the primary reason that it is within five minutes of the two main Jaguar Land Rover sites in Coventry.”

Mr Allen said that from a customer-relation perspective there was a lot of interaction between the two firms so it was important that BorgWarner had somewhere convenient to conduct technical meetings.

“The office has a professional feel which is very important and being based at the Business Innovation Centre gives us flexibility on space should we need to expand in the coming years,” he added.

Penny Robb, manager of the innovation centre, said attracting such a high profile tenant was a significant boost to the status of the facility.