Bentley has bagged a £3 million grant from the Government's Regional Growth Fund (RGF), a move that will allow the luxury car maker to develop a new powertrain application to help push new export markets.
The RGF's cash injection will also help to safeguard over 200 jobs and create a small number of additional positions within the Company's 900-strong engineering department - a welcome spot of cheery news in an otherwise gloomy outlook for the UK's manufacturing sector.
This is the second time this year Bentley has been successful with the RGF, having received £1.68m in the first round to create additional manufacturing jobs and training.
"This is a real boost for Bentley which has one of the most highly skilled automotive workforces in the country and, uniquely, has now been awarded two RGF grants," says Bentley Chairman and chief executive, Wolfgang Durheimer. "It shows that the Government recognises the importance of Bentley and the contribution we make to high value manufacturing and UK exports."
Of course, one of the reasons that the government is chucking moderately large amounts of cash into Bentley is that it's actually doing quite well at the moment. Perversely, US and European markets are up by a third despite a jittery world economy, and new markets such as China are still skyrocketing - as of the end of September, Bentley sales in China exceeded 1000 units for the first time as the country cements its position as the second biggest global market for Bentley. Age of Austerity? Ha...