Finley Structures at Centre of Hitachi Steel Ceremony

Aycliffe company Finley Structures featured highly at a steel ceremony hosted by Hitachi Rail Europe last week. The Japanese giants held the event to celebrate another major milestone in the development of its £82m train-building factory on Aycliffe Business Park.
Finley Structures is in the process of erecting a 2,000-tonne skeleton for main contractor Shepherd Construction. With Finley’s steel project about a third of the way through, the firm’s managing director John Finley watched on, a very proud man, as his daughter Julie addressed the guests before her daughter, 7 year old Grace, presented commemorative podgers – specialist spanners used in the construction industry – to mark the occasion.
Grace presented podgers to MP Phil Wilson, Hitachi Rail Europe’s managing director Keith Jordan, Shepherd Construction’s regional managing director Andrew Constantine and her Mum, Julie.
In her speech, Julie said the contract has helped to secure 100 local jobs. “Finley Structures was established in 2000 by my father, John Finley, however, my mother Valerie played a major part, and very rarely gets a mention. But, as they say, behind every good man, is a good woman.
“John’s ambition was to build a company that would create sustainable employment, while delivering top quality products and service. The company has grown immeasurably over the years, slowly increasing the workforce, picking up bigger, high-profile contracts and increasing turnover year-on-year.
“To us, this project is more than just a contract. It’s an historic one. It will bring train-building back to the birthplace of the railways. It will bring hundreds of jobs to the area and then thousands more in the supply chain. It will help to create prosperity and, for Aycliffe Business Park, it will raise the profile.”
Finley’s part in the project will finish later this year, while Shepherd Construction is due to complete the 43,000 square metre factory by the end of summer 2015. The firm’s regional managing director Andrew Constantine said: “This development has provided a welcome boost to the region’s economy, harnessing expertise from across the North-East and providing hundreds of local jobs throughout the supply chain.
“We are delivering this project from our Darlington office, and sticking to the promise we made to Hitachi that we would source as many suppliers as possible within a 50-mile radius.”
The shells of the trains are being constructed by Hitachi in Japan before being shipped to the North-East.
Hitachi’s managing director Keith Jordan revealed the firm is in talks about taking land adjacent to the factory where it could set up a sister facility to make train body shells – a move which would create more jobs on top of the 730 which will work at the factory from next year.
“We think trains that will transform the lives of people in Britain should be made in Britain. Why not?” said Mr Jordan.
Hitachi considered 42 sites across Europe before deciding to make Aycliffe the centre for it train building operations. “We knew that this was the perfect site, so it is wonderful to see it taking shape,” added Mr Jordan, who said Sedgefield MP Phil Wilson had been “instrumental” in Hitachi’s decision to invest in the region.
Mr Wilson added: “It is great to see an iconic factory being built here in Aycliffe that will be one of the leading manufacturing sites in Europe.”