Taxi manufacturer set to relocate to new factory in £200m investment
THE Chinese-owned London Taxi Company is set to quit its long-established Coventry base and relocate to a new factory in Ansty Park as part of a £200m investment into electric vehicle production.
The new factory is part of a five-year investment plan set to create an initial 550 jobs with scope for future expansion that could potentially lead up to the creation of 1,000 jobs.
Business leaders and councillors have welcomed the move and hailed it as a significant step forward in realising the area’s strategy economic plan for creating growth in the advanced manufacturing sector.
The scheme has the added benefit of providing an important boost to Coventry and Ansty Park in particular and comes just a month after the city was rocked by the collapse of the City Link parcel delivery business and before that, the announcement by Rolls-Royce that it intends to close its turbine blade factory, also situated an Ansty Park.
A planning application for the new factory had been lodged with Rugby Borough Council and is set for approval by its planning committee on February 18.
A report to the committee states: “The proposal represents a significant level of investment in the manufacturing sector of the local and regional economy with major economic benefits, not least of which is significant job creation and a range of employment opportunity.”
The proposed development is described as being a state of the art facility for research, development and assembly of high technology electric vehicles, including the next generation of London taxi.
The site will be the London Taxi Company’s new headquarters and will include a substantial research and development department, supply chain team, global sales and marketing and administrative functions necessary to support the assembly operations of the new vehicles.
In supporting information it is stated that the company intends to invest £200m to help develop advanced green taxi technology over the next five years with the aim of launching a zero-emission electric powered London taxi by 2018 together with other variants of the same vehicle.
The assembly operations will be based on low volume production using skilled labour as opposed to automated high volume production with all components imported to the site from suppliers in the UK and abroad.
It is anticipated that approximately 12,000 vehicles per year will be produced based on a single shift system. The majority of the jobs at the factory would be new though it is intended that some employees will transfer from the company’s existing site in Coventry.
“The proposal will contribute to the on-going vitality of Ansty Park in employment land terms and help realise the vision that the overall site becomes a key part of the Coventry and Warwickshire sub-region’s advanced manufacturing sector as supported by the Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership (CWLEP) and its most recent Strategic Economic Plan (SEP),” states the report.
The council believes the take-up of Zone 6 of the Ansty Park site will build on its strong track record for attracting high profile businesses to the sub-region.
Existing occupiers include: the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC), the Heat Treatment Research Centre (HTRC) and the Sainsbury’s Store Support Centre.
The 25,050m² factory will comprise 20,435m² of production/assembly space together with 4,615m² of ancillary offices, reception/showroom and staff welfare facilities.
Cllr Ann Lucas, leader of Coventry City Council, said the application was key to the continuing development of the advanced manufacturing sector, which was a top priority in the strategic economic plan for Coventry and its surrounding area.
The council said it was keen to see investment secured for the area and was committed to ensuring that its longstanding links with the manufacturer were maintained and strengthened.
Jonathan Browning, chairman of the Coventry & Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership, said expansion of the advanced manufacturing sector was one of the LEP’s top priorities and that the £89m allocated to the area’s Growth Deal was designed to support much of the development.
The CWLEP also favours the scheme because of the huge employment benefits associated with the scheme.
In its Strategic Economic Plan (March 2014) the LEP identified Ansty Park as a strategic employment site and that the proposals to facilitate automotive manufacture offered the opportunity to complement existing activities at the site and create new employment opportunities.
