Aston Martin hosted a special ceremony that launched Phase II of the redevelopment of St Athan. The site in South Wales will become the British luxury carmaker’s second UK manufacturing plant.
The former military site was formally handed over from the Ministry of Defence to Aston Martin by Secretary of State Sir Michael Fallon at a ceremony including Aston Martin President and CEO Dr. Andy Palmer, and Secretary of State for Wales, Alun Cairns and Welsh First Minister, Carwyn Jones.
With the commencement of these works, Aston Martin St Athan is on target to commence production of the company’s new SUV, the Aston Martin DBX, in 2019.
“Due to its sheer size and scale, the St Athan Super Hangars represented an excellent opportunity for us to build our second manufacturing facility, within the envelope of an existing structure,” said Dr Palmer.
“It is perhaps fitting that St Athan is, like our headquarters and sports car factory at Gaydon, a former Royal Air Force base.”
Just over one year ago, Aston Martin announced that St Athan had been chosen as the site for its second UK manufacturing plant from 20 potential global locations as part of the growth strategy under the companies Second Century Plan.
Phase I commenced in late 2016 when Aston Martin was first given access to part of the site and began to create the customer and staff reception areas, administration and management offices and the employee restaurant.
Phase II marks the beginning of the project that will see the three super hangars redeveloped into a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility.
The new plant brings employment opportunities to South Wales; a recruitment event last year attracted 3,000 applications and already the first technicians are working on the DB11 at Gaydon, training for the highly-skilled roles they will take up at St Athan in 2020.