Suppliers In Demand

Behind the front line of car manufacturing are the specialist component makers, and Britain’s lead the way. We see why this £4bn-a-year industry is booming.

- Martin Saarinen

IT’S remarkable the difference three millimetres can make. By cleverly engineering this tiny gap between the carbon fibre trim surrounding the titanium and steel exhausts, it’s possible to prevent the carbon fibre from heating above 150 degrees Celsius, even when the exhaust itself glows to 600 degrees.

The development allowed Red Arch – an engineering company based in Northamptonshire – to be the first in the world to produce carbon fibre exhaust trims, and in the process, secure a lucrative deal with BMW. The trim can now be found on the latest M2, M3 andM4, along with the MINI John Cooper Works, and stands as another unheralded victory for British engineering.

Red Arch is just one of thousands of UK manufacturers busy supplying vital and unique automotive parts to giants like BMW around the world. In fact, the UK is home to more than 2,000 component manufacturers that support 78,000 jobs and contribute a massive £4.3billion to the economy every year. So while big British car makers like Jaguar Land Rover get all the glory for bringing homegrown engineering and design back into the limelight, this web of suppliers has been busy innovating the industry for years.

Auto Express joined Red Arch – which recently won the Queen’s Award for enterprise in international trade – for the day to see first hand what the expertise of British engineers and suppliers brings to the table globally.

The first impressions are certainly modest. Red Arch’s production and assembly plant is located on a quiet industrial site in Daventry, Northants, just a mile from its design and concept centre. It’s very different to industrial complexes like Ellesmere Port in Cheshire, but you quickly learn not to judge a book by its cover.