First firm heads to i54

Historic aerospace company GE Aviation could become the first firm to move onto the flagship i54 business park, it was revealed today.

US engineering group Moog, which has just bought the former Boulton Paul factory in Fordhouses, Wolverhampton, plans to move it to a new purpose-built factory within three years.

GE Aviation senior executives have talked to Wolverhampton City Council regeneration chief Steve Boyes about a possible move to i54, a few hundred yards away down Wobaston Road.

Further talks are being set up with regional development agency Advantage West Midlands, which is pumping £65 million into turning 237 acres of polluted and derelict land into a hi-tech business park employing up to 6,000.

Sealing a deal with Moog would be the answer to a dream for both the city council and AWM, which has stuck to its plan of finding a manufacturing company as the key tenant on the site.

New York State-based Moog bought the Wobaston Road flight controls factory from GE Aviation for 56 million in a deal sealed last week.

The factory, originally founded in the 1930s by Boulton Paul, made the Defiant night fighter in World War Two and now makes systems for the new RAF Typhoon jet as well as the new Boeing 787 and Airbus A380 passenger liners. It currently employs around 470 people and has a three-year lease at its present site.

No decision will be made on future staffing levels, but Moog's vice president in charge of acquisition integration, Joe Bell, pledged: "We don't buy a business to shut it down and move it away. A lot of the reason why we have bought this business is the skills and knowledge of its people."

Wolverhampton Council's Steve Boyes said: "We are aware of the situation with Moog and preliminary discussions have been held."