Liberty Vehicle Technologies, part of the global metals and engineering group, Liberty House, has unveiled plans to invest £10m in the creation of a centre of excellence at Leamington Spa to accelerate its growth in the automotive sector.
Expected to open in early 2018, the 50,000 square-foot facility is designed to boost the Liberty House Group’s technological development competence, as well as expand and enhance its current manufacturing capability in the advanced auto-components market.
Liberty, which is a Tier 1 supplier to several major vehicle manufacturers, also announced today that it has acquired Daventry-based vehicle control systems business, Shiftec (now renamed Liberty Shiftec), giving the business access to cutting-edge mechatronics.
In addition, the Group will unveil its new hyper-car, T1 Evo by Liberty, a high-performance vehicle designed to showcase the engineering strengths of the group.
The hyper-car T1 Evo by Liberty is the next generation of the iconic T1 high-performance vehicle which reportedly still holds the original Top Gear track record. Early development of the hyper-car has been undertaken by Liberty’s own engineering team in collaboration with Daventry-based race-car design specialists, JRM Group.
The new centre of excellence will also house the design and manufacture of the ‘Trillion by Liberty’ range of premium bicycles.
These announcements come on a day of celebrations across Liberty’s Midlands-based engineering businesses, marking both the 25th anniversary of the Group’s formation in 1992 and the formal inauguration of Liberty Pressing Solutions, a 750-worker Coventry-based automotive business acquired by Liberty in January 2017.
Executive chairman of the Liberty House Group, Sanjeev Gupta explained: “Britain has a vibrant vehicle manufacturing industry that made over 1.7million cars and 93,000 commercial vehicles last year. That provides a huge opportunity to grow our own domestic supply chain and provide UK auto producers with local alternatives to the flood of imported components currently used in British vehicles.
“By creating this centre of excellence in our 25th anniversary year we’re signalling our intent to take a lead in the renaissance of the UK auto-components sector. This gives us a platform for growth and future job creation.”
Speaking ahead of a visit to Liberty Pressing Solutions in Coventry, Minister of State Nick Hurd said: “Through our modern Industrial Strategy we are looking to build on strengths in the automotive sector in the West Midlands, creating high-skilled jobs while making the local economy as competitive as possible.
“Liberty’s investment in Covpress and this auto centre of excellence is the type of project our Industrial Strategy will look to support, creating well-paying engineering roles, boosting the UK’s domestic supply chain and delivering cutting edge innovation that builds on our status as a world-leader when it comes to automotive.”