Aston Martin snubs the West Midlands to open new factory in Wales

The site of the new facility at St Athan in Glamorgan

LUXURY sports car manufacturer Aston Martin has snubbed the West Midlands in favour of Wales as the base for its new production facility.

The company has been looking at a site in Minworth, near Sutton Coldfield, while a potential base in Alabama had also been mentioned as being on a shortlist.

Minworth was thought to be favourite because it is closer to the firm’s base of operations at Gaydon in Warwickshire.

However, the manufacturer has rejected them both in favour of a site at St Athan in Glamorgan.

The new factory will produce the firm’s new crossover vehicle, details of which are still under wraps.

However, the Welsh option is not all bad news for the West Midlands’ manufacturing industry.

With the decision to build the new crossover vehicle in Wales, the company confirmed that production of its next-generation sports cars would be focused at Gaydon, with the new DB11, the replacement for the iconic DB9, the first to be produced.

Gaydon will also be the production base of the recently announced all-electric RapidE, with work slated to start in 2018.

The intention is to expand production at Warwickshire to the point where the firm is producing around 7,000 cars a year by 2020.

The company said it anticipated that up to 1,000 jobs would be created across St Athan and Gaydon between now and 2020, with a quarter of them destined for Warwickshire.

Across the supply chain and local businesses, a further 3,000 jobs will likely be created as a direct result of these investments.

Occupying around 90 acres, the new Aston Martin facility at St Athan will re-purpose facilities currently in use at the site by the Ministry of Defence.

Centred on the transformation of the three existing ‘super-hangers’ at MoD St Athan, construction work is planned to start in 2017 with full vehicle production commencing in 2020.

The factory will be the sole production facility for the new Aston Martin crossover vehicle, currently dubbed ‘DBX’. It is the company’s first move into the SUV sector and will see it target the luxury markets in China and the United States.

With growing global demand for these types of vehicles it is expected that over 90% of the production from St Athan will be exported outside the UK.

Dr Andrew Palmer, CEO of Aston Martin said: “Through a detailed evaluation of over 20 potential global locations for this new manufacturing facility, we were consistently impressed with the focus on quality, cost and speed from the Welsh Government team.

“As a great British company, we look forward to St Athan joining Gaydon as our second centre of hand-crafted manufacturing excellence.”

The move has won the backing of the Prime Minister, who – with one eye on the up-coming EU referendum – said the decision to invest in Britain showed real confidence in the economy.

“With our economic strengths and easy access to European markets, the UK automotive sector is thriving. It is one of the biggest in Europe – and the most productive – and Aston’s creation of up to 1,000 new jobs in Wales and the West Midlands is welcome news,” he said.

Close