NEW HEADQUARTERS TO EXPAND ARIEL'S POTENTIAL

Site will include a factory, showroom, museum and servicing operations

- STEVE CROPLEY

Ariel will build a factory close to its Somerset A current base as it moves to expand its operations.

The new factory will be located to the east of Crewkerne - just off the A303 - on a 43-acre site that was recently acquired by the Atom maker after five years of negotiation.

The building is expected to open within the next three years at a cost of "a few million", according to Ariel boss Simon Saunders.

He added that build costs have risen rapidly since the idea of a new factory was first floated so the company may need to seek outside funding.

Various preliminary designs have already been completed, such as the picture below, and all follow the same brief: to create a building that isn't ordinary, said Saunders.

"We don't want to move to an ordinary industrial unit," he said.