Goodwood plant

Updated on Oct 21, 2023

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Opened 1 January 2003 Architect Nicholas Grimshaw		Structural system Steel frame

Location Westhampnett near Chichester, West Sussex, England

The Goodwood plant serves as the headquarters, design, manufacturing and assembly centre for Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.

Officially opened for business on 1 January 2003, the plant has been expanded twice since, and now covers 22,500 square metres (242,000 sq ft). It presently employs 800 workers, half of whom are employed in the wood and leather shops. The plant reached a record production figure of 15 cars per day in June 2010.

2016 rolls royce motor cars goodwood plant leathershop

History

Goodwood plant httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

After BMW bought the rights to the Rolls-Royce brand as applied to motor cars from Vickers plc, it required a new manufacturing plant in which to build the new cars. Rolls-Royce cars had until this time had been built at the Crewe plant, but both the plant and the Bentley brand were owned by Volkswagen Group.

Goodwood plant A Day in Goodwood We visit the Rolls Royce factory

BMW came to an agreement with the Earl of March to buy a greenfield site on his Goodwood Estate, near Chichester, West Sussex. The original plant, located close to Goodwood Circuit and Westhampnett village, was projected to cost up to £200M, resulting in a plant employing circa 350 people capable of making 1,000 cars a year. BMW engaged architect Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, the architect of the Eden Project in Cornwall, who penned a £60M building. Designed to fit into its environment, the plant is unable to be viewed from the road, in part thanks to a 3.5 ha "living roof" made of sedum plants, the largest in the UK, where breeding pairs of skylarks have nested. Other features that help the property blend in with the countryside was the planting of 400,000 trees and shrubs, as well as cedar cladding on the buildings. The plant is situated in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, which will make further expansion difficult for Rolls-Royce.