8:24 am, August 15, 2014
JAGUAR Land Rover has chosen Prologis Park, Ryton, near Coventry as the home of its Special Vehicle Operations Technical Centre.
The facility will be the ‘global centre of excellence’, says JLR, for the creation of high-end luxury bespoke commissions and extreme performance vehicles.
With operations set to begin towards the end of the year, a team of 150 Jaguar Land Rover specialists will be based at Ryton. Some 100 of those highly-skilled engineering and technician jobs will be new. And £20m will be invested in installing specialist equipment and a customer commissioning suite.
The centre will be part of the company’s Special Operations, created in June under the leadership of John Edwards to focus on meeting the increasing expectations of today’s most discerning and enthusiastic Jaguar and Land Rover customers.
It will feature a VIP customer commissioning suite for bespoke services and vehicle personalisation, as well as Formula 1-inspired flexible workshops and a specialist paint studio.
Managing director of Jaguar Land Rover Special Operations, John Edwards, said: ‘We are excited by the capability and potential that this new facility will give us. We will be creating truly iconic vehicles that reinforce the global reputation of both Jaguar and Land Rover brands as we expand our product portfolio and fulfil our ambitious plans.’
The first vehicle to roll out of the new SVO workshop will be the Jaguar F-Type Project 7, the most powerful and fastest production Jaguar to date. Limited to just 250 units, the Project 7 will start life at the company’s plant in Castle Bromwich, before transferring to the Special Operations Technical Centre to complete the build by hand.
Jaguar Land Rover continues to deliver on its strategic growth plans, which will see the company investing in 50 new product actions over the next five years. This includes £1.5bn to introduce an all-new, technically-advanced aluminium vehicle architecture in forthcoming models, beginning with the new Jaguar XE small saloon to be manufactured from 2015 at the company’s Solihull facility.
