For most of its life Aston Martin has been in financial difficulty and the risk getting sold to yet another Asian conglomerate. But things are going good these days for prestigious British marque, and a definitive sign of that is their construction of a new production facility in St Athan, Wales.

The St Athan site was picked from more than 20 potential global locations for Aston’s new factory and the recipient of a £200M investment. In the end they decided to stay close to home and signed a contract with the Welsh First Minister, securing the site and immediately starting the construction of Phase I of the new production line and other facilities. Aston has also trained 750 new employees at their existing Gaydon headquarters so that they can start rolling out the production at St Athan shortly after the completion of the construction work.

But there’s more exciting news of expansion for Aston fans: ‘Phase II’ will commence in April 2017 when Aston Martin will gain access to the three Ministry of Defence ‘Super Hangars’ that will house the new manufacturing facility.

Aston Martin President and CEO Dr Andy Palmer commented: “The exchanging of this contract, giving us first access to the St Athan facility, is a milestone in our 103-year history. Work now starts in earnest to turn our plans into reality. Since taking the decision to build our first SUV in Wales we have been impressed with the commitment and approach from both the MOD and the Welsh Government in making this project work. We continue to work with the Welsh Government in areas like recruitment to ensure we are able to meet our project timescales.”