Global Technologies Racing Ltd has announced the establishment of a brand new, state-of-the-art Training and Development Centre. Bespoke designed and built at a cost of over £1 Million, the new facility fully meets the exacting needs of the GTR group of companies and their global customers. The site is located in Littlehampton, UK, a few miles away from the group’s Fontwell head offices. Formally opened by Richard Noble OBE on Tuesday 10 December 2024, the new facility will be used as a base for GTR’s acclaimed apprentice training scheme as well as providing surge capacity to meet the growing demands of GTR’s expanding operations.
Richard Noble OBE is a ‘friend of the business’ having first worked with GTR when they built his Thrust SSC land speed record car in the mid-90’s. Richard has since become an ambassador for engineering apprentice training with a clear focus on building and encouraging STEM activity in the younger generations – thereby being a natural choice to open GTR’s new training and development facility.
The new Training and Development Centre has a floor space of 450 square meters and is staffed by a permanent team of 8 with the capacity to house over 20 apprentices for centralised training. Installed machinery includes: fully programmable autoclave; a large 1500×1200 composite press; a high tension filament winder; a fully equipped clean room and laminating shop; mill; air benches; and various equipment to support the manufacturing development of resin infusion and LRTM manufacture. The facility is primarily focused on training apprentices and upskilling staff, from Level 1 Apprentice to Degree Level HND. The new equipment installed, as well as being used for training, will add to GTR’s overall production capabilities and capacity. In addition, the facility will be used to prototype and validate improvements to existing production practices, develop future processes, and provide essential overflow capacity to meet surge demands when the main production sites are working at full capacity and customer demand exceeds expectations.
Sitting alongside this new facility, GTR’s established high-precision composite manufacturing capability is second to none. Selected to manufacture critical components by companies ranging from the world’s most high technology race car teams to critical medical equipment manufacturers, the skills, quality and attention to detail embedded into GTR’s processes are more than a match for precision sectors such as aerospace and defence. With over 300 highly skilled staff on-site, GTR’s production facilities include ten in-house autoclaves ranging in sizes up to 3m in diameter and 5.5m in length. This allows GTR to handle both micro components and larger vehicle sized assemblies alike.
Simon Kingdon-Butcher, Co-founder, Owner and Director at GTR said: “the establishment of our new Training and Development Centre has been another significant investment for GTR and we’re delighted that our friend Richard Noble OBE was able to open it for us today. Training the next generation of technical experts is a fundamental part of our strategy and our new facility provides our programme and our apprentices with everything needed to deliver the very best training and development. At the same time, we have invested in several new machines that will allow us to deliver yet more to our customers and the facility gives us a ‘clean space’ to develop and validate new processes and procedures to keep GTR at the very forefront of innovation. Today is a proud day for the entire team”.
Richard Noble OBE said: “I’ve known GTR for many years, the team having built my Thrust SSC land speed record car in 1995/6. I’m delighted to have been invited to open their new facility today and to see, first hand, the commitment GTR has to training apprentices and to developing news ways to deliver the most exquisite composite components. For someone like myself who is closely aligned with apprentice and STEM activity, it’s a pleasure to see a company invest so much in the people and the skills of tomorrow”.
