Gaydon at the heart of Aston Martin's major investment programme

Warwickshire has received a major employment boost with Aston Martin's announcement of significant new investments towards its long-term future in the United Kingdom.

The company has confirmed that production of next-generation sports cars will be focused at its headquarters in Gaydon.

With a new factory to be built in St Athan, Glamorgan, up to 1,000 new jobs will be created across that site and Gaydon between now and 2020 - with an estimated 250 coming to Gaydon. A further 3,000 jobs are likely to be created in the supply chain and local businesses as a result.

Production of the recently announced all-electric RapidE is also to be located at Gaydon, starting in 2018.

Dr Andrew Palmer, chief executive of Aston Martin, said: “As a great British company, we look forward to St Athan joining Gaydon as our second centre of hand-crafted manufacturing excellence.”

Aston Martin will commence production of the new DB11 in Gaydon in autumn 2016. The model will be the replacement for the iconic DB9 and the first car to be launched under the company’s Second Century plan.

During the next five years, the company will both replace and expand its entire sports car portfolio and Warwickshire will remain at the very heart of that operation.

Continuing with the DB11, sports car manufacturing will be centered at Gaydon with the facility progressively expanding production to a planned maximum volume of 7,000 sports cars a year by 2020.