New Car from Aston Martin Creates jobs in Wales
Published Date: 24th Feb 2016
Aston Martin has announced its long term investment in the United Kingdom by setting up its second manufacturing facility in St Athan, Glamorgan, South Wales.
It is anticipated that up to 1,000 new jobs will be created across St Athan and Gaydon between now and 2020. Across the supply chain and local businesses, a further 3,000 jobs will likely be created as a direct result of these investments.
The new site covers 90 acres and will make use of some of the facilities currently occupied by the Ministry of Defence. Focusing on three existing super hangers at MOD St Athan, The construction is to go ahead in 2017 with full production of the DBX crossover starting in 2020.
Dr. Andrew Palmer, CEO of Aston Martin said: “During our 103-year history, Aston Martin has become famous for making beautiful hand-crafted cars in England. 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.”
First Minister of Wales, Carwyn Jones said: “I am delighted to officially welcome Aston Martin to Wales. We have been working closely with the company for almost two years in the face of fierce competition from other potential sites across the world. Our success today is testament to the reputation, dedication and skills of the Welsh workforce, all qualities that are synonymous with such a luxury, hand-crafted brand as Aston Martin.
“Today is the start of a long-term relationship between Wales and Aston Martin. We will work together in building on the strong foundations of our partnership to nurture a prosperous and rewarding future for this iconic company and its skilled workforce in Wales.”
St Athan will be used solely for the production of the DBX a new crossover luxury model. The concept of the new car was first shown in Early 2015, With growing demand for these types of vehicles in the US and China it is expected that up to 90% of these cars produced in Wales will be exported to the rest of the world.
The expansion leaves the existing plant at Gaydon, Warwickshire to focus on the expansion of the Aston Martin sports car portfolio, beginning with the new DB11 later this year and continuing with the fully electric RapidE in 2018. Production plans from here are set to reach 7,000 a year by 2020.