A start-up company has inaugurated what it describes as central London’s largest factory opening since the Second World War, as renewed investment in defence and artificial intelligence spurs advanced manufacturing growth. Isembard’s new facility, occupying 160,000 square feet across four floors, is located in Southwark on the site of a former council car pound.
The company’s chief executive, Alexander Fitzgerald, said the Mandela Way site will produce components for a range of technologies including drones, rockets, robots, submarines, and jet engines. Isembard counts among its clients the US defence technology firm Anduril, Babcock International, and government agencies.
Currently employing 35 staff at the London site, Isembard expects this number to grow to 200 by the end of next year. Fitzgerald noted that opening such a large factory in the city would enable the company to recruit skilled machinists as well as experts in AI and robotics engineering, citing London’s deep talent pool as a key advantage. The location sits approximately a mile from Tower Bridge and near the A2, a major route linking London with the port of Dover. The facility, roughly the size of two football pitches, had remained vacant until British Land redeveloped it for new industrial use, with Isembard signing the lease less than three months prior to the opening.
Isembard, a two-year-old firm named after Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, seeks to modernise the traditionally fragmented supply chains for critical components through a network of software-driven factories. The company operates 15 factories across the UK, US, France, and Germany, primarily through franchise ownership.
The move comes amid a broader trend of increased manufacturing capacity in the defence sector. The UK Ministry of Defence recently launched a drone-testing facility in Swindon, situated on a historic site formerly used for Spitfire production and later as a Honda car plant. The resurgence reflects a wider industrial shift as property investors and defence firms acquire and repurpose previously idle factories. Sirius Real Estate, for example, has made significant defence-related property acquisitions in the UK and Germany, with plans to invest up to €1 billion.
Isembard has raised over $50 million from investors including Union Square Ventures, an early backer of Twitter. Recent financing from existing shareholders has reportedly valued the company at around $500 million. The start-up intends to seek additional funding to support further expansion.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds praised the opening, stating that it exemplifies efforts to revive Britain’s industrial base. Fitzgerald underscored the symbolic importance of the factory’s opening, highlighting manufacturing as central to national security, prosperity, and purpose, and commenting on the historical decline the size of the new London factory reveals.