Firing up the engines: Rolls-Royce boss Tufan Erginbilgic
The boss of Rolls-Royce is this week expected to urge the Government to throw its full weight behind ground-breaking British nuclear technology developed by the country’s flagship engineering giant.
Chief executive Tufan Erginbilgic is pushing through a whirlwind transformation of the company. He will on Tuesday unveil his blueprint for restoring Rolls to its former glory.
The firm, which is synonymous with Britain’s manufacturing prowess, went through years in the doldrums under previous bosses and came close to bankruptcy during the pandemic.
‘Turbo-Tufan’ will be highlighting his company’s mini nuclear power plants – known as SMRs, standing for small modular reactors.
Erginbilgic is a big believer in the SMR project, which is based on technology honed for use in submarines over the last three decades.
The mini-reactors are greener, cheaper and quicker to construct than conventional power plants and can be sited in a much wider range of locations.
Rolls-Royce, which has so far benefited from about £200 million of Government backing for its work, is ahead of other companies in the UK and abroad. But Erginbilgic is understood to be concerned that competitors will catch up if the Government does not give its full-throated support.
There are also fears that potential overseas buyers of the technology are hesitant because of the British Government’s apparently lukewarm attitude towards Rolls-Royce’s technology.
Instead of backing Rolls outright, the Government launched a competition to select an SMR provider, pitting the company against foreign rivals.
Six firms were selected for the next phase of the competition last month, including EDF of France and a joint venture between the US’s GE and Hitachi of Japan.
Erginbilgic is likely to argue that the process should be speeded up. Sir John Rose, a former boss of Rolls, spoke out in The Mail on Sunday in the summer, warning that Ministers were risking a valuable stream of export income and the chance to create thousands of highly skilled jobs.
Rolls has said in the past that if it won the contract to supply SMRs to the UK, it could create 40,000 jobs by 2050 and boost the economy by £50 billion, as well as helping in the drive to net zero emissions.
Shares in Rolls-Royce have been among the best performers on the stock market this year, rising by 145 per cent so far as the City has been impressed with Erginbilgic’s verve. However, they are still 18 per cent lower than they were five years ago.
At the capital markets day on Tuesday when he meets top City analysts, Erginbilgic will set out medium-term financial ambitions and also talk about his long-term strategy.
As well as having overarching plans to transform the business, he is keen to make efficiency cost savings. Additionally, he is expected to outline his hopes for Rolls to go back into the narrow-bodied jet market and to gear up the company’s defence arm.
He is also likely to highlight the new UltraFan aero engine which is being developed by Rolls. It is 10 per cent more efficient than its largest aero-engine, the Trent XWB, paving the way for its first net-zero flight by 2050.
