The UK’s biggest bike manufacturer Brompton has unveiled plans to invest £100m to develop a new state-of-the-art factory built upon stilts within a newly restored wetlands area.
The folding bike specialist revealed its plans to develop its new site in Ashford, Kent, with the project scheduled for completion in 2027.
The new Kent-based factory is to be built upon a 100-acre flood plain close to the town’s international rail station. However, rather than building a traditional factory, Brompton plans to develop an environmentally friendly site across a rewilded nature reserve designed to support a net gain in biodiversity.
The new site will also incorporate a musuem, visitor centre and cafe yet will have no car park, instead relying on a series of bike paths and pedestrian walkways linking the factory to the nearby station, all details that are part of Brompton’s pledge to a more sustainable future.
‘As we face climate change, combined with poor mental and physical health in our cities, where most of the world’s population live, we need to adapt. There has been a global realisation post-pandemic that we need to change how we live in our cities, to design them around the people that live in them, not the automobile,’ said Will Butler-Adams, CEO of Brompton.
‘Brompton has a large part to play in supporting that transition, but we need to have more space to innovate and create the products of the future. London was the inspiration for the Brompton and our success is in large part is due to our diverse and skilled staff who continue to nurture and develop our company. By choosing Ashford we can retain this strong connection to London and the UK, whilst being on the doorstep of Europe.’
Brompton expects to expand from 850 staff to 1,000 within the next year and has aspirations of employing 1,500 staff by the time the new headquarters opens in 2027. Once fully operational, it is expected Brompton will expand to a staff base of 4,000, bringing thousands of jobs to Ashford and the surrounding area. The current headquarters in Greenford, London will remain in operation until 2030.
This ambitious expansion is all part of Brompton’s plans to manufacture 200,000 bikes per year, up from the 70,000 bikes manufactured in the year up to March 2021.
While other bike manufacturers have struggled with component shortages and Brexit, Brompton has managed well desipte the company’s usual 10-week lead time increasing by a month.
Butler-Adams told The Guardian that the ‘Brexit situation has been a bit of a nightmare’, but added that the situation was ‘improving’ and that it had got past the worst of the supply issues.