News

Planning permission has now been granted for Bond Bryan’s latest venture into advanced manufacturing with a production facility in Telford for Magna/Cosma Castings UK – the leading global automotive supplier.

Construction is expected to start in the autumn of 2016 with completion by January 2018; the facility will use Magna’s innovative high-pressure vacuum die-casting process to produce a number of advanced lightweight aluminium castings – a key building block in the next generation of all-aluminium and multi-material vehicle architectures.

By utilising these types of castings, Magna helps automakers to deliver maximum strength, stiffness and minimum weight – ultimately achieving better fuel economy, safety and handling.

The new facility will be approximately 225,000 square feet and will create up to 295 jobs at full capacity.

Fran Holloway, lead designer and associate director at Bond Bryan Architects said:“Our brief was to create a well-designed, sustainable building and environment which fully serves the end user’s requirements whilst also integrating well with the site’s surroundings and other proposed developments at T54. The scheme will create a new habitat whilst maintaining key green corridors. It will provide a pleasant working environment for those employed at the site, whilst offering a range of transport options. It will also result in the creation of new jobs in the area – putting this area “on the map” for key employers.”

The key design feature of the building is a glazed atrium, centrally located to link the main customer entrance through to the manufacturing production floor. It is intended that, although each zone will be visually and spatially linked, it will essentially be a self-contained unit with secure boundaries. A feature staircase and strategically-located lift will connect the building vertically. The shared atrium area, forming the link between two zones, will provide a connection point to the social and breakout area housing the cafeteria and providing access to the remaining amenities.

The design aims to create a distinctive, high quality catalyst to Plot 6 TS4. The key external appearance of the building has been given due consideration to provide a welcoming and inviting building that reflects the high quality production facility internally.

Councillor Shaun Davies, Telford & Wrekin Council’s cabinet member for Business, commented: “This signals the dawn of a bright new era of opportunity for everyone in the borough. In Telford, we pride ourselves on being inventive and dynamic and the details of the high tech production process for this planned facility shows this is a perfect fit for us. The new facility represents a hugely significant multi-million pound investment which demonstrates that Telford & Wrekin Council’s drive to attract new business and jobs is realising spectacular results. This major development will see the creation of 295 skilled local jobs when the plant is at full capacity. The investment will also support many more jobs in the local supply chain”.