Derby-based Rolls-Royce (
www.rolls-royce.com) is to invest more than £30 million in its Fleet Support plant site in Washington, Tyne and Wear, to create a new aerospace manufacturing facility.
This should be fully operational by 2018 alongside the group’s existing disc-manufacturing facility, which was officially opened in June 2014.
The construction of the new facility, which will have the capacity to manufacture more than 1,500 fan and turbine discs a year (for use in a wide-range of engines), will also result in the closure of a site in nearby Sunderland in 2019. Employees at that facility will start to move to the new site from 2017.
David Ayton, Rolls-Royce executive vice-president, said: “Our exceptional people engineer and make extraordinary components. This showcase facility will give us the opportunity to set new standards of excellence for quality, delivery and cost.”