Green light for major industrial projects

The recent go-ahead for some major new industrial projects has highlighted the improving prospects for new construction work for manufacturing facilities across the country.

While attention has tended to focus on growth in the logistics/warehouse sector, the work pipeline for industrial projects is also getting stronger for modern plants where large businesses produce goods.

Jaguar Land Rover, Cinder Glass and the pet food group Purina are among the manufacturing companies which have recently unveiled plans involving significant new building work.

Meanwhile, increasing investment in the defence sector is also creating opportunities for new industrial construction contracts as major players such as BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce modernise their estates.

Signs of an upturn

The upturn in industrial projects aligns with Glenigan forecasts, which predict a return to growth in the sector next year. Glenigan is predicting a 3% rise in industrial project starts in 2025 with a further 4% upturn the following year.

Jaguar Land Rover’s plans for a £500 million electric vehicle production facility at Halewood on Merseyside will involve a new £250 million industrial building as part of a facility capable of producing 500 vehicle bodies per day.

Work on the facility, which includes linked infrastructure works and access roads and which will be JLR’s first all-electric facility, is part of a drive to reposition the firm as an ‘electric-first’ carmaker by 2030 (Project ID: 24277861).

Meanwhile, in Wales, project managers have recently been appointed and construction work is set to start next spring on Turkish company CiNER’s £390 million Dragon Glass bottle manufacturing facility at Ebbw Vale in Gwent (pictured).

The new plant will cover a total area of around 131,000 sqm and work is set to run for 36 months. It will aim to serve a growing market for new and recycled glass as consumers move away from plastic (Project ID: 20219408).

Modernisation programmes at manufacturers are also generating new construction work. At Wisbech in Cambridgeshire, pet food producer Purina – whose brands include Gourmet and Winalot – recently announced a £150 million upgrade of its facilities. The work will include a refurbishment of changing rooms for its 600 employees, a new car park and measures to boost energy efficiency.

Investing in defence

Rising military spending is prompting the major defence manufacturers to invest in new industrial projects. Indeed, six out of the ten of the largest European cities for defence technology are in the UK including London, Reading, Oxford, Leeds and Cambridge – according to a recent survey from Dealroom.

Work is set to start early in the new year on a £65 million reclad and reroof a storage shed to store four submarines at BAE Systems’ Devonshire Dock at Barrow in Furness in Cumbria. McClaughlin & Harvey is the main contractor on the scheme, where work is set to run for 32 months (Project ID: 18295031).

On a somewhat smaller scale, detailed plans have been granted and work is set to start next spring on an extension to BAE’s Myerscough Road Manufacturing Facility in Blackburn. The £1.34 million project is at the pre-tender stage and work is set to run over six months (Project ID:24226299).

One major industrial project in the pipeline in the defence sector is the £211 million Rolls-Royce Raynesway project in Derby where outline plans have been granted for an expansion of manufacturing & storage space across more than 184,000 sq m of space.

Balfour Beatty is the main contractor on the scheme which will boost Rolls-Royce’s capacity to make nuclear submarine components for the MoD following the AUKUS agreement with work set to be carried out in stages over eight years (Project ID: 23188701).