HRH The Princess Royal visits West Yorkshire firms
Several business across West Yorkshire were visited by HRH The Princess Royal, as she came to the region to see manufacturing, technology and construction firms in action.
Her first stop was Ginetta Cars in Garforth, where she toured the factory site where Ginetta racing cars are designed and manufactured. She then visited Cryer and Stott Cheesemongers in Castleford, before heading to Scientific Games in Leeds.
To complete her day in the region, HRH The Princess Royal officially opened Leeds College of Building’s Hunslet campus.
Lawrence Tomlinson, chairman of LNT Group, which owns Ginetta Cars, said: “We are just delighted that HRH took the time to come and help us celebrate our 60th year here at Ginetta. It is a massive thing to be manufacturing for 60 years.
“HRH is extremely interested in cars and in racing and was asking technical questions, including all about our carbon fibre technology and the aerodynamics involved. She is very technically minded and it was a delight to show her around.”
Ginetta Cars has been on the Garforth site since 2007 and employs 100 people on site, who complete all of the design, manufacture and testing in-house. Tomlinson added that growth of the firm would to continue into 2018 and beyond as the company looked to make the racing cars sector more accessible.
He said: “We have continually grown and it’s a great success story of car manufacturing that is continuing right here in Yorkshire.”
HRH The Princess Royal looked at prototypes as well as the racing cars themselves being assembled on the production lines and spoke to staff about their roles in CAD, build and assembly. One of the team members she spoke with was Charlie Robertson, who competed in and won the Ginetta Junior Championship and Ginetta GT4 SuperCup. He now works full-time at Ginetta, developing new race cars.
Tomlinson said that while it was exciting the brand was well-known across the UK and on racetracks in Europe, it was incredibly important to provide new routes into manufacturing firms such as Ginetta.
He added that many of people previously employed in more traditional manufacturing jobs had taught the younger generation skills including welding and fabrication. “We are a traditional Yorkshire business and we are proud of the team we have here,” said Tomlinson.
