Engineering firm specialising in motorsports granted nearly £2m to create state-of-the-art building in Northamptonshire

A local firm which manufacturers parts for motorsports vehicles and luxury cars has recevied £2 million in funding for a new state-of-the-art home.

JRM, based in Daventry and founded in 2007, has received funding to extend and remodel one of its existing sites, thanks to the company’s international success on the racetrack.

Staff have already started to migrate into the new centre, a DMG Mori 3D printer has recently been installed and a High Frequency Driver in The Loop (HFDITL) rig is due to be placed in the Rutherford Way site by April next year.

JRM managing director, Jason King, said: "Our new centre of excellence will make us a market leader.

“We will become a company able not just to design and manufacture products but also test and approve them in our quality control department.

“This means we will bring together under one roof all our capabilities as an advanced engineering company and at the same time bring in new ones – for industries locally and overseas.

"Historically we have worked in the automotive sector with the likes of Jaguar, Subaru and Nissan.

“Moving forward though we see no reason we can’t also break into the aerospace and medical sectors.

"We will launch as a low volume vehicle manufacturer for the first time. We want to show that we are not just a race team, but that we are an expert all round engineering company."

It is a grant of more than £1.6million from South East Midlands Local Enterprise Partnership’s (SEMLEP) Local Growth Fund that has enabled the company, which was previously spread across three sites – one in Bicester and two in Daventry – to consolidate and create one state-of-the-art centre.

Hilary Chipping, chief executive, SEMLEP, added: "This new centre of excellence will reinforce our reputation in the South East Midlands for innovative technical testing and automotive expertise.

“Our area’s strengths in this will become increasingly important as we work to enhance efficiencies in both speeding up adoption of new technologies and contributing towards achieving a net zero-carbon economy.

“We are delighted work has already started and confident this will be a centre that will not just benefit Daventry and Northamptonshire but also the UK as a whole. "

The centre of excellence will also include additional commercial incubation space for small and large businesses and the centre will be fitted with solar panels to provide at least 75 percent of the energy needs for the site.

JRM’s new premises will include electrical charging points, a 350kW solar farm and will retain the flexible hours that have become a new norm during Covid-19, to reduce petrol consumption.

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