Hundreds of new jobs planned under £50 million scheme at i54 site
Hundreds of new jobs will be created under plans for a new £50 million factory on the i54 site.
An unnamed firm has submitted a scheme to take over a site the size of six football pitches to the i54 Western Extension on the Wolverhampton-South Staffordshire border.
A statement accompanying the plans says the development will bring in 290 jobs – including 100 relocating from the local area – and safeguard another 100 jobs.
It comes after Jaguar Land Rover announced plans to take on 100 production operatives at its sprawling engine manufacturing centre elsewhere on the site off Innovation Drive.
The statement, by real estate firm JLL, says the identity of the business is being kept under wraps at this stage "as the client has made no announcements about the proposals to its workforce or to the business media".
The development is described as a "single detached industrial unit with ancillary offices, providing 35,795 sq m of floor space, ancillary external buildings, associated vehicle parking, cycle storage, yard space, circulation, lighting, landscaping, an access road with three access points, and other ancillary development".
The site has been cleared for development and will include a main three-storey building and two car parks for nearly 400 cars.
According to the statement, the scheme will cost £50m and will "generate further employment through consolidation of most of the client’s UK activities in the Midlands and the corresponding effect on its component network supply".
It is understood the i54 Western Extension could bring around 1,700 jobs. Last year JobCentre Plus announced a recruitment drive for the site.
