PICTURES BY CHRIS BOOTH
Gestamp celebrating 75 years of success
PLATINUM
PARTY
Continuously evolving , while developing and caring for its local workforce is secret to Gestamp Tallent ’ s success on Aycliffe Business Park
BY SARAH WALKER
It all started in April 1948 , when Roy Tallent set up a business on the site of a World War II munitions factory , producing fancy goods like lipstick and cigarette cases from unused ammunition made by the famous Aycliffe Angels . Fast forward 75 years and what we now know as Gestamp Tallent is a global leader in chassis and components manufacturing , for big names like Jaguar Land Rover , Ford , Nissan , Volvo , BMW and Volkswagen .
However , despite significant successes through a journey of evolution that still continues well into its eighth decade , subsequent plant managers at Aycliffe ’ s biggest employer have never lost sight of the company ’ s heritage . This pride in what started with the Aycliffe Angels heroic efforts during World War II is most evident in the Tallent name still being used by the business – but that ’ s not all .
If you visited its seven factories , as well as the 4,000 tonne transfer presses and 5,000 tonne hydroform lines which create metal parts and components for today ’ s most popular cars , you would find examples of those lipstick , cigarette and powder cases , carefully preserved for posterity .
Jonathan Phillips , plant director , says : “ There ’ s a very interesting history associated with what was Tallent .
“ We still have examples of those early products and we ’ re looking forward to celebrating 75 years in Aycliffe and highlighting where it all started .
“ We will have a history week and other events to reference our heritage , which is fundamentally based around the Aycliffe Angels and what they did in the war effort – we don ’ t want to lose sight of that .”
In 1955 , Tallent ’ s company was sold to the Colston Group , with the factory producing domestic appliances , gas fire cases and paraffin heaters .
Jonathan says : “ One of the heaters made here in the plant is now in the V & A museum .
“ It won an industrial design award and used to sell for eight pounds and 18 shillings .
“ It was popular in Japan because of a special feature that allowed it to be used for cooking with a wok .”
It wasn ’ t until the early 1980s that the company moved into producing parts for the automotive industry .
A management buyout in the late 1980s saw three directors devise a strategy to supply products for car chassis and in 1992 , the company was bought by the German steel group Thyssen AG .
Thyssen AG merged with Krupp in 2001 creating ThyssenKrupp .
In July 2011 ThyssenKrupp sold its interest in Tallent , and Spanish automotive supplier Gestamp bought not only the Aycliffe site but also the ThyssenKrupp European metal forming operations .
“ The first automotive products we started to manufacture were for the Ford Sierra ,” Jonathan says .
“ Today , we supply every OEM ( car parts for large manufacturers ) almost globally .
“ We ’ ve gone from that small engineering company to a business that employees more than 1,000 people on our site .”
The magazine for Aycliffe Business Park | 17