Following Kia Motors’ announcement that is has signed a £115m ($176.5m), 10-year deal with Paragon for vehicle processing in the UK, the companies have revealed more details about the investment being made at Paragon’s new Stallingborough site near Immingham in the Humber region of England.
To support the new contract Paragon has purchased 35 hectares of land in Stallingborough for £9m. The outlay will cover redevelopment and the extension of the existing workshop and body shop. Together Kia and Paragon will establish facility spanning 75,000 sq.ft including a fully functioning compound for vehicle storage, preparation and distribution to 185 UK dealers. Those services include fitting vehicles out to customer specification before they are sent to the dealers.
Paragon will handle and process 120,000 vehicles through the facility per year. Kia has plans to sell around 100,000 vehicles a year in the UK by 2020.
Awais Ajmal, head of supply chain for Kia Motors UK said: “We have ambitious plans for Kia over the next decade and it was important to find a supply chain partner who shared our vision. Paragon has a commitment to innovation and efficiency that sits at the heart of this contract.”
The deal means Kia’s terminal processing activity will move from GBA’s facility in Killingholme in December this year, though existing Paragon and GBA staff will be employed in the 150-strong team at the new facility.
“The port on the Humber is a strategic and extremely important part of Kia’s UK car import and distribution,” said Yaser Shabsogh, commercial director of Kia. “The facilities which will be available for us to process our cars will be fantastically state of the art, and will allow us to keep delivering expertly designed, quality vehicles to our dealerships up and down the UK.”
Paragon said it has appointed Brian Steeds as operations director to lead a dedicated management team to oversee operations.
“Paragon is investing in new technology and talent to ensure that it can deliver improved efficiency and smarter solutions for its customers,” said Ian Carlisle, CEO of Paragon. “We have continued to expand our operation to offer the scale and flexibility that leading manufacturers need in a robust partnership. We have developed an integrated solution for new and used vehicles that will use the latest technology to drive efficiencies across all processes.”
