FINAL STRUCTURAL BEAM SIGNED BY ROLLS-ROYCE DIRECTORS AS LANDMARK £300 MILLION EXTENSION REACHES KEY MILESTONE

• Ceremony echoes Sir Henry Royce’s tradition of personally signing
  off new designs
• Final steel beam of 40,000m² extension signed by Rolls-Royce Board
  of Directors
• Marks rapid progress – just four months after the CEO signed the
  first structural column
• Landmark extension is the largest single investment in The Home of
  Rolls-Royce since it launched in 2003

“Just four months ago, I signalled the start of above-ground
construction on our £300 million extension project by signing the
first steel column to be installed. My fellow Board Directors and I
have now signed the last beam to be lifted into place, completing
the internal framework of our new main building. The project is
running at a great pace, with the external structural work due to be
finished in the autumn. This rapid progress reflects the extension’s
fundamental importance to our business, providing the additional
space and upgraded equipment we need to continue expanding our
Bespoke and Coachbuild operations, in line with global client demand.”


Chris Brownridge, Chief Executive, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

Rolls-Royce has marked a major milestone in
the development of its new extension at The Home of Rolls-Royce,
Goodwood. In a formal ceremony, members of the company’s Board of
Directors signed the final steel beam to be installed in the
building’s internal structure, before it was lifted into place at the
structure’s highest point.

The signing ceremony comes just four months after Chief
Executive, Chris Brownridge, signed the first of 437 steel columns,
each standing up to 13 metres high, marking the beginning of the
building’s structure. The new 40,000m² building will support the
marque’s expanding Bespoke and Coachbuild capabilities and house a new
Exterior Surface Centre.

With the full steel framework now in place, attention now turns
to the next phase of the project, which includes cladding the
structure and integrating it with the existing facility via a 30
metre, 20-tonne steel bridge, delivered and installed as a single
assembly earlier this year.

The ceremonial signing evokes an earlier Rolls-Royce tradition,
in which supervisors would initial completed body panels or mechanical
components with a chinagraph pencil before passing them to the next
stage in assembly. This practice itself echoed Sir Henry Royce’s own
insistence on personally inspecting and approving every new component
– often requiring near-daily, 400-mile round trips between the
company’s original factory in Derby and Sir Henry’s home, ‘Elmstead’,
in West Wittering. Just a few miles from the marque’s present-day home
at Goodwood, Elmstead served as both a retreat and a workspace for
Royce, who would test, refine and sign off designs there – a legacy
that continues on the very same Sussex roads still used today by the
marque’s test and development team.

Costing over £300 million, the landmark new extension represents
the largest single investment in the Home of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars
since it launched in 2003. Once completed, it will further strengthen
the company’s economic contribution to the United Kingdom, which
currently exceeds £500 million annually.