Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne officially opened GKN Aerospace’s new £250m manufacturing plant at Severnside this afternoon, declaring it the most futuristic factory he'd ever seen.
Speaking to many of the 300-strong workforce and VIP guests, he said: "It makes me enormously proud that we are not in the US or Japan or South Korea but here in the West of England."
At the end of a week during which the economy has slumped back into recession, Mr Osborne defended the Government's record and, repeating comments he made earlier at the official launch of Bristol's enterprise zone (see Bristol Business News story – http://www.bristol-business.net/?p=6088), said it was essential to rebalance the economy away from financial services and the City of London.
He said the Government was supporting the UK aerospace industry – which he described as "a national asset to be treasured" – and had invested £60m in a new aerodynamics centre. The aerospace sector in the UK is worth £3bn and employs more than 300,000 people directly and indirectly.
The Government's role was to make the UK "the most-competitive place in the world to do business" he said. It was doing that partly by reducing business taxes.
He acknowledged the economy, which officially declined by 0.2% in the first three months of this year to push Britain into a double-dip recession, was difficult but he insisted that it was companies like GKN that would put the country on the road to recovery by investing in skills, trading around the world and being innovative.
"We know the situation is difficult," he said. "But the way to deal with it is for Britain to earn its place in the world. We have to rebalance the economy towards sectors other than financial services, important as that is, and chief among those sectors is aerospace."
The GKN plant makes pioneering composite wing parts for Airbus aircraft, including the yet-to-fly mid-range A350 XWB (extra-wide body) airliner and the A400M military transporter. Engineering group GKN has invested £107m in the two buildings on the site – both of which contain world-beating composite wing part manufacturing and handling equipment.
Mr Osborne toured the facility with GKN chief executive Nigel Stein and Marcus Bryson, chief executive of GKN’s Aerospace business.
The plant has already attracted national media attention. In February Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Business Secretary Vince Cable toured it ahead of a manufacturing summit in Bristol.
The plant will employ around 450 people when it is fully operational in 2015.
GKN has also invested £17m in the former Airbus wing parts manufacturing plant it acquired in 2007. That plant, employing 1,500 people, makes mainly traditional metallic wing parts for Airbus and seven other planemakers including BAE Systems and Dassault of France.
