Turnkey tooling designer and manufacturer for the aerospace, defense, luxury automotive and bespoke sectors, Pentaxia, has purchased a large £1m manufacturing site in Derby.
A six-month programme to refurbish and upgrade the site will start immediately. The £1m investment in the site will include new manufacturing equipment which will double the firm’s existing production capability.
The completion of the sale will see the family-owned firm move in the new year, from its home in Longbridge Lane near Birmingham to the six-acre site, which houses office space and 70,000 sq ft of manufacturing space.
Constructed in the 1960’s as the composite manufacturing facility for Rolls Royce, the site was at the forefront of advanced manufacturing until 2002. This deal will see the site return to its former glory as a centre of innovation and a composites hub for the Midlands.
Taking possession of the keys, managing director Stephen Ollier said: “This marks a big step forward in our company’s nine-year history. We’ve seen a rapid increase in demand for lightweight, high performance components from our blue-chip customers in the aerospace, motorsport and luxury automotive markets.
“We have grown more than 60% in the past 12 months and to maintain that kind of growth we need a lot more space. It’s essential that we maintain the high quality and reliability that we’re known for, which results from completing every element of our work in-house and working very closely with our customers.
Predictably meeting quality standards and delivery dates is just what major multinational companies need from suppliers like us. The new site is three times the size of our existing facilities, which gives us space to expand effectively and dependably.”
Pentaxia invests as well in staff training to meet growth needs and employs twelve graduates and eight apprentices, winning the SEMTA National Skills Champion Award in 2014 for its work with the long-term unemployed.