After securing a £10.4 million injection from the government, Lotus are set to create around a thousand jobs. The Regional Growth Fund turned down an initial bid for £27.5 million before the reduced bid was accepted.
The sports car manufacturer, based in Hethel, Norfolk, has an expansion plan for the next five to six years which will hopefully see the creation of around a thousand jobs. The money is earmarked for an additional factory and car assembly line on the site, which will be used in the manufacture of a new range of cars.
The chief executive of Group Lotus, Dany Bahar, expressed his delight at the acquisition of funds and said that this was always intended to be used for the creation of jobs regionally.
He put the delay in approval down to a lack of understanding by the government in the company’s’ future plans to keep production together, commenting that it made little sense to produce mid-engined cars at the Hethel site and other size engine cars at a different site.
In what was hailed ‘a complete remake of the brand’, the Paris motor show saw the unveiling of five new cars by Lotus. The first of the new models is expected to roll off the production line in 2013 now that the funding has been confirmed.
South Norfolk MP, Richard Bacon, said there was hope that the boost to the local economy would spur an influx of businesses along the A11, which is due to be converted into a dual carriageway.