Firms gearing up to reap Jaguar Land Rover benefits

Manufacturers across the West Midlands and Staffordshire were today gearing up to start reaping the benefits of a £355 million Jaguar Land Rover engine plant opening in Wolverhampton.

Suppliers to the luxury car maker expect vast increases in demand for everything from metal pressings to components as JLR prepares to launch an 800,000 sq ft factory on the i54 business park in Fordhouses, which is on the border with South Staffordshire.

Bosses told today how they would be scrambling to capitalise on the biggest investment in the area in decades, expected to create thousands of jobs in the supply chain across the country on top of 750 at the plant.

West Bromwich-based Metal Assemblies Ltd, which makes small components that are sent to other firms which in turn manufacture larger parts for JLR, is hoping to add to its 120-strong payroll when the factory opens.

Stuart Fell, chairman of the company in Oldbury Road, said: "We supply to Jaguar Land Rover and we hope to provide the equivalent parts for the new engines. We are an efficient company so we feel we have every chance of winning business when it becomes available.

"This is good news all round. There won't just be new jobs, there will be new training and apprenticeship schemes and that's good for everybody. It's how things used to be done."

Mr Fell added there had been a noticeable upturn in the fortunes of his firm in recent months. He said: "We are running at a higher level than we ever have before."

Walsall Pressings, in Wednesbury Road, Walsall, employs 220 people and supplies metal pressings to JLR.

Managing director Paul Woolley said: "We hope to be able to continue our relationship and gain business when the engine plant comes to fruition. We have still got to win the business when that happens, but we are certainly looking to grow off the back of this."

Bosses at Huf in Black Country New Road, Tipton, which employs 250 people, also hope to build on existing links with JLR.

Paul Linton, a senior manager at the firm, said: "JLR expansion plans are great news for the region."