Coventry's Expert Technologies Group wins major contract from JLR and secures £5.5M loan
Coventry-headquartered Expert Technologies Group has been awarded an eight-figure contract from Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) to create a robotic assembly system and secured a £5.5 million loan from Bristol-based Frontier Development Capital (FDC) to support the working capital need for the project.
The 'body in white' robotic assembly system will be for a new luxury electric vehicle (EV) to be produced at the vehicle manufacturing giant’s Solihull plant, it was reported.
"The company has seen record activity following the post Covid hangover of 2022. Electrification is driving new opportunities for our business, with the launch of new electric vehicles and with manufacturers themselves looking to invest in new plant to support the move to net-zero production," said Angelo Luciano, CEO of Expert Technologies.
"However with major projects of this type, it is essential to have the right finance package in place. FDC has been very supportive over the years.
"The funding they have provided has enabled us to take on larger contracts and helped to drive the growth of the business," he added.
The JLR project is one of Expert Technologies' largest to date, and follows a spate of contract wins in 2023, which has resulted in a record order book.
The company has also recently been awarded several Innovate UK grants to support the automotive industry's move towards net zero.
For JLR, the assembly system contract is part of its plan to electrify production and invest £15bn over the next five years at its UK manufacturing sites.
Expert Technologies was established in 1972 and was acquired by Angelo Luciano in 1998.
Since then it has grown from 10 employees to around 300, of which 250 are based in its UK facilities in Coventry, Houghton-le-Spring and Widnes, and the remainder at subsidiaries in the US and Slovakia.
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