Gestamp

Background

Gestamp Tallent, based in Aycliffe Business Park, is part of a multinational company that specialises in the design, development and manufacture of highly engineered metal components for the main vehicle manufacturers.

It develops products with an innovative design to produce lighter and safer vehicles, which offer lower energy consumption and a lower environmental impact. Gestamp is present in 24 countries with 115 production plants, 13 R&D centres and a workforce of more than 44,000 employees worldwide.

Its site in Newton Aycliffe has 1,100 employees and boasts a wellbeing centre and training academy.

Brief

Gestamp Tallent, whilst part of a global company with a shared history of 27 years, has itself a history of being a longstanding business on the Aycliffe Business Park site, and in 2023 it would celebrate its 75th anniversary.

The company is very people centric and had planned a number of celebration activities with employees and their families. However, alongside a transformation project of its main reception the company approached Horizon Works to create a more lasting and permanent celebration of its history at the site.

Solution

• It was agreed that a timeline wall graphic would work well within the newly refurbished reception area – capturing the attention of all visitors.
• It would visually demonstrate the company’s rich heritage at the site.
• Designed within the Gestamp colour palette the iconography enables a quick snapshot of the journey of the company from its origins on the site of a WW2 munitions factory.
• Sectioned by decades, the timeline captures key products manufactured and designed at the site and in later decades its specialism in automotive manufacture and the growth of the site, its development in R&D and specialist equipment, as well as its investment in people and the future.

Results

• The visual timeline has been a conversation starter for employees and visitors alike and it makes a lasting memory in those that see it.
• It has since been reprinted in the Plant Training Academy – the home of new starter inductions.
• It is a source of pride for employees, many of which connect with the heritage of the company and site and is a great demonstration of the journey the company is still on to invest in people and the site.