The company鈥檚 new machine shop is being built alongside a new 13,000 tonne forging line, both of which underpin a 拢1.3 billion recapitalisation programme being driven by Forgemastetr's MOD owners.
Gareth Barker, COO at Sheffield Forgemasters, said: 鈥淭his event marks a significant milestone in the development of our new machine shop, and it is fantastic so many people were able to join us to mark the occasion.
鈥淥ur new facility enables us to bring together our years of expertise and investment in state-of-the-art machines, to deliver incredible accuracies and dramatically improve our ability to innovate, making Sheffield Forgemasters more competitive on the world stage.
鈥淎ttending the topping out ceremony were a number of our long serving employees, some with almost fifty-years of service with the company alongside our first-year apprentices, who鈥檒l transfer this inherited skill and knowledge into future engineering practices.
鈥淔or many of our machinists, this was the first time they had visited the new site and what will eventually be their new workplace.鈥�
Paul Griffen, MD at McLaughlin & Harvey, said: 鈥淭he completion of the structural steelwork at Sheffield Forgemasters is more than a construction milestone. It reflects the journey we have taken together to reach this point. A journey that would not have been possible without the unwavering commitment, collaboration and professionalism from all involved. We look forward to continuing the journey together as we head towards a successful completion and handover.鈥�
The machine shop project team consists of Arup, which handled the ecological and travel assessments, Bond Bryan Architects, and JLL, which acted on behalf of Sheffield Forgemasters for the site acquisition and planning submissions, and delivery support partner, Turner & Townsend.