Rolls-Royce ‘shovel-ready’ on Prince George plant

Rolls-Royce PLC expects to start construction in late September or early October on the first phase of its planned aircraft-engine components plant in Prince George County, a company executive said yesterday.

"We are shovel-ready," said Thomas Loehr, an executive vice president with Rolls-Royce North America.

"We have cleared 60 acres," he said. "This is intended to provide the space we need to accommodate the first three facilities that we have planned for the site."

Loehr spoke yesterday at a meeting hosted by John Tyler Community College on manufacturing work-force development in the region.

The planned start of construction would come nearly two years after Rolls-Royce, a British company with its North American headquarters in Reston, announced that it would invest $100 million to build an aerospace manufacturing campus on the 1,000-acre Crosspointe Centre development in Prince George.

At the time of the announcement in November 2007, the company said it was aiming for a late 2009 opening of the first phase of the project.

Since then, Rolls-Royce and other aircraft-engine suppliers have been affected by the recession and delays in production of two airliners, the Airbus A380 and Boeing 787.

"These are difficult economic times, and in fact most global economies are still shrinking," Loehr told local manufacturing company and community college officials at the meeting yesterday.

"Most companies cut back their level of investment. We are not immune to this. We have experienced the same things."

Yet Loehr said the company still considers the Crosspointe investment vital to its growth plans in North America. He noted that the company's pipeline for future product deliveries has continued to grow this year, despite the recession, and now stands at about $83 billion.

"This is about the future," Loehr said of the Crosspointe project. "We remain confident about the growth prospects."

London-based Rolls-Royce PLC reported on July 30 that its profit rose 16 percent and revenue increased 27 percent in the first half of the year, compared with the same period in 2008.

With construction planned to start in the fall, the first building at the site, a production plant for discs used in civil aircraft, would be completed in late 2010.

The second phase, a 130,000-square-foot building for production of blisks, engine components for military aircraft, is expected to start in the second quarter of 2010.

Production at the second site will be heavily dependent on the federal defense budget, specifically funding for the F136 engine that Rolls-Royce and General Electric Co. are jointly developing for the F-35 fighter aircraft. Funding for the engine has come under pressure in Congress, however.

"It will come as no surprise to you that we strongly support continued funding of the F136," Loehr said.

Plans for the third building and its use have not been determined.

Contact John Reid Blackwell at (804) 775-8123 or .