New Telford factory sees car supplier create 300 jobs

The company Cosma is a global automotive supplier providing a comprehensive range of body, chassis and engineering solutions to OEM customers.

An official opening ceremony took place yesterday to unveil the 225,000 square foot facility on Telford 54 Business Park at Nedge Hill.

Built in the name of Magna International’s subsidiary Cosma, it will reportedly create about 300 jobs and will make parts for Jaguar Land Rover.

Councillor Shaun Davies, leader of Telford & Wrekin Council, said the region fought off strong competition, including from abroad, to secure the deal for the plant.

Davies said reportedly at the official opening: “This is a huge deal for Telford and Wrekin. It is the single biggest foreign investment deal in the region in the last 10 years. Anybody who goes into Telford town centre can see this huge factory on the horizon.

“The company will be making component parts for Jaguar Land Rover. This factory represents one contract Magna has got and one of the things we did as a council is future proof the site, so if they win other contracts they can actually expand this site.

“It has created 300 direct jobs for Magna and hundreds more in the supply chain. There is already a huge willingness on behalf of the company to engage with local supply chain companies.

“We held an employment fair a few months ago – 1,200 people came to it to compete for those jobs so it is really good news. As a council we are business winning and business supporting. From Magna’s point of view this was a prime site.

We were competing with many other sites right across the country and Europe to get this deal. It is important for Telford to have thriving and successful businesses.”

It is the largest automotive development in the West Midlands after the Jaguar Land Rover complex at the i54 site.

Magna’s subsidiary Cosma International took over metals pressings specialist Stadco in 2015, promising investment in the business, and the new development shows that promise coming to fruition.

Work on the new castings facility development began in the autumn of 2016 and production has already begun, with the first shipment taking place last Friday.

The facility will use Magna’s high-pressure vacuum die casting process to produce a number of advanced lightweight aluminium castings – which are seen as a key building block in the next generation all-aluminium and multi-material vehicle architectures.

The parts made at the site are to be for body structures of JLR’s cars.