Telford factory passes key milestone with massive delivery

Magna International is behind a huge new plant which has sprung up on the skyline of eastern Telford in the last few months.

Work has now passed a significant milestone with the delivery of the first part of its biggest machines – an 87-tonne part of a diecasting machine.

At 225,000 sq ft, the factory is the size of four-and-a-half football pitches, with thousands of tonnes of bespoke machinery set to be fitted into place over the next few months.

In October it will be handed over and its offices occupied by Magna staff, while the factory will begin trialling machines ahead of production ramping up next April.

The first machine arrived on Friday, and was followed in the early hours of Monday morning by the joint-largest delivery – an 87 tonne part of a 273 tonne diecasting machine which will be used to make structural car parts.

The factory will make parts for Jaguar Land Rover in Castle Bromwich – although neither company has confirmed which models will use the Telford-made castings.

"Magna have worked with JLR for many years making structural castings, and we currently make parts in Germany," said Ben Goater, general manager of the UK castings division based in Telford.

"The next logical step was to work with them on bringing them something more local.

"This is the first of several new machines coming to this site, and we will have a total of eight die casting machines in this phase.

"It's very exciting for us. A lot of planning has gone into this, and a lot of specialist work as well."

Once completed, the factory will create about 300 highly technical jobs, and Magna has already started creating roles and bringing in staff.

Many of those workers have been appointed from the local area, the company said, with some workers beating on the company's door in the hope of getting work.

"This factory will create 300 jobs, and the nature of the processes means we need very technical people.

"We need highly-skilled maintenance people to keep the machinery running, we need tool makers, and we will be looking to do apprenticeships to train that kind of person.

"We are going to make a quality product, so we need quality staff."

The machine rolled through the gates at around 8am, on the back of a 32-metre truck which with its cargo weighed 150 tonnes.

Having been built in Switzerland, it travelled through Austria and Germany before sailing from Rotterdam in Holland to the UK over the weekend.

It was then driven from Hull, where it landed, through Yorkshire and Leicestershire before coming into the West Midlands and arriving in Telford early on Monday morning.

The building work itself has also created jobs, with 150 people working on the site at its peak.

Many of the more technical aspects of the work have been completed by nomadic teams from further afield, but finishing work such as plastering have seen local contractors brought in.

Dave Boughey from contractor McLaren, which is delivering the building for Magna, said: "It has been quite a technically challenging job.

"Everything about Magna's business is millimetre perfect, and it is such a bespoke environment.

"It's not just getting the floor down, slapping it in and plonking it down – it's a technical job from start to finish.

"So far it has been a good team effort, everything fits, but the proof will be in the pudding."

The floor of the factory needs to be able to withstand the massive weight of the range of machinery being brought in – and the four biggest machines on their own will weigh more than 1,000 tonnes.

With heat treatment plants and a range of smaller machines also set to be installed, the factory needs to be designed to stand up to masses of constantly-moving machinery.

The factory was redesigned just to get the biggest pieces of kit inside, with only one door big enough for the truck to enter with the machines on its back.

Mr Boughey added: "The whole thing has been designed around the end product.

"It's up there among the jobs I've done in terms of being exceptional, because it is such a bespoke product.

"It has been challenging and very enjoyable working with the Magna team."

Telford & Wrekin Council leader Shaun Davies said: "It's a landmark moment in what will be a landmark building in Telford.

"That factory is massive, it dominates the skyline around Telford centre, and it shows a true statement of intent not just for Telford & Wrekin but also for the council being business-winning.

"We have spoken a lot about being business-winning and business-supporting, and this is a very tangible example of that.

"We went into the boardroom of that company and fought for Telford & Wrekin. Many companies are now talking to us about coming to Telford or expanding in Telforrd on the back of seeing investments like Magna's."