Isembard has opened a 160,000 sq ft factory and global headquarters in Southwark, central London, which the company says is the largest factory to open in the capital since the Second World War.
The new facility will manufacture precision components for customers across the aerospace, defence and robotics sectors, including Anduril, Babcock and Tekever.
The opening comes as demand for domestic manufacturing capacity continues to grow, particularly across strategically important industries such as defence and aerospace.
Isembard currently employs 35 people at the Southwark site but expects its workforce to increase to 200 by the end of 2027. The roles will span production, software, manufacturing and robotics automation engineering, alongside support functions for the company’s wider factory network.
The company has also experienced rapid expansion over the past year, growing from four factories at the beginning of 2026 to 16 across the UK, Europe and the US. It is targeting 100 owned and franchisee factories across the UK by the end of 2028, which it says could create a further 2,200 high-skilled jobs.
Manufacturing returns to Southwark
The Southwark facility combines Isembard’s global headquarters with an operational precision manufacturing site.
The factory includes 3-axis and 5-axis milling machines, turn-mills and wire electrical discharge machines, as well as a climate-controlled metrology laboratory. The company’s software and robotics engineers are based alongside the factory floor, allowing them to develop its MasonOS operating system and robotics technology alongside live manufacturing operations.
Isembard was founded in London in late 2024 and is attempting to address what it sees as a growing gap in global component manufacturing.
The company estimates that small businesses account for around 95% of component production, but argues that much of this industrial capacity is at risk as ageing business owners retire and demand for components from critical industries increases.
Its business model combines owned and franchisee factories with MasonOS, a proprietary operating system designed to automate areas including quoting, scheduling, production and quality control.
The company has said the Southwark location was chosen partly to provide access to London’s technology talent pool, while allowing its software and engineering teams to work directly alongside manufacturing operations.
The site also has a historical connection to manufacturing. Southwark was once a major centre for engineering and industrial activity, while Isambard Kingdom Brunel – after whom the company is named – worked on the Thames Tunnel at nearby Rotherhithe.
The factory’s opening also comes as the UK government seeks to increase domestic manufacturing capacity, particularly in sectors considered strategically important to national security.
Isembard founder and CEO Alexander Fitzgerald said the scale of the new facility reflected the need to rebuild Britain’s industrial base.
“Manufacturing is the origin of our security, prosperity and sense of purpose as nations,” he said.
“No one has opened a factory like this in London since the Second World War and that tells you how far our industrial base has been allowed to shrink. Bringing production back onshore is the work of the next decade.”
Backing UK reindustrialisation
The investment has also received support from Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds, who said the new facility represented the type of investment the government was seeking to encourage.
“This is exactly what reindustrialising Britain is all about. Bringing manufacturing back into the UK, backing our critical industries and creating highly skilled jobs across the country,” Reynolds said.
“It is my mission to create the conditions that businesses need to invest and expand in the UK, to drive growth and opportunity in every postcode. This exciting news from Isembard marks a huge vote of confidence in that ambition.”
The government has placed greater emphasis on sovereign manufacturing capability as part of its wider defence strategy, with the Defence Investment Plan committing close to £300bn and identifying resilient supply chains and autonomous systems among its priorities.
For Isembard, the Southwark factory represents both a manufacturing facility and a base from which to expand its wider network.
The company currently operates 16 factories across the UK, Europe and the US, with the majority of its recent growth coming during 2026. Its plans to reach 100 UK factories by the end of 2028 would represent a significant expansion of its manufacturing footprint.
At a time when the UK is seeking to rebuild domestic production capacity and strengthen supply chains for critical industries, Isembard’s investment provides another example of advanced manufacturing returning to a part of London that has historically been associated with industrial production.
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