Construction begins on £112m Rolls-Royce facilities

Construction work on new £112m facilities at a Rolls-Royce centre in Derby is under way.

On Monday, the company announced a £300m investment in the UK, including £140m for Derby, with £112m allocated to a regeneration of the company's Sinfin A campus.

The A Site will see six acres (2.4 hectares) of old buildings and infrastructure cleared to make way for two new engineering and manufacturing services facilities, which will employ more than 300 people.

"This is the largest investment in Derby in over a decade, and we are really proud of our ties with the city. It is a symbol of our commitment to Derby," Paula Clarke, director of test and experimental engineering at Rolls-Royce, told the BBC.

The new manufacturing services building will be about 3,300 sq m (35520 sq ft), have space for 90 employees, and will house manufacturing services teams that support factory operations.

The new engineering building will be about 10,500 sq m (11,3021 sq ft), will accommodate 230 employees, and is intended to bring engineering teams together to work on projects including "improving engine durability and performance".

Rolls-Royce said the aim was for the buildings to be ready by the end of 2028.

"The engineers in Derby do a phenomenal job with the capability they already have, and our job is to make sure they have capabilities fit for the future and to keep evolving the tools and infrastructure they work with," said Clarke.

"Speaking for my engineers who will work in these buildings, they are delighted to see this type of investment, and it reinforces how much we value them."

Rolls-Royce added that 20 tonnes of material from the old buildings are being reused, while 60 tonnes will be removed for recycling.

Obsolete buildings at the site will also be cleared for "future opportunities".

Site clearance began in 2025 and is about 90% complete, the company added.

The remaining funding from the £140m allocated to Derby will be used to refurbish the aftermarket support facility (ASF), which is one of the site's oldest buildings, dating back to the 1920s.

The ASF facility is already being used for rapid "module swaps" on Trent 1000 engines that power Boeing 787 aircraft.

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