Aylesbury: DAF Trucks opens £20m headquarters and academy

After nearly 30 years in the same building, DAF Trucks has opened a new £20 million state-of-the-art headquarters and academy. Located in Haddenham, Buckinghamshire, the 50,000 sq ft building will house almost 200 people along with a world-class technical training school, a contemporary auditorium and an entrance atrium designed to accommodate a DAF six wheel tractor unit.

The investment in the workplace was described by Robin Easton, managing director of DAF Trucks, as “a demonstration of the commitment to further strengthen DAF’s leading position in the UK market". With Francis Hunter as lead consultant and Maze as workplace specialist, award-winning office design company, Oktra completed the internal works and construction phases of the development.

Internally, the space is a mix of private offices and open plan sit-stand work stations and houses a state-of-the-art four-bay workshop offering best-in-class training facilities for employees and DAF UK dealers.

The design philosophy takes its lead from DAF’s parent company PACCAR. David Bishop, senior designer at Oktra, said: “We worked alongside Maze Workplace to develop the design, covering various complex areas throughout the scheme. From a technical perspective this project required detailed co-ordination and diligence to realise the design brief.”

Matt Harris, director at Francis Hunter Group, said: “Utilising all of our areas of expertise meant that we were able to sequence the different stages of the project to ensure it was completed in two years instead of the more typical three year development cycle.

“I’m enormously proud of everything we have achieved with DAF Trucks – it has been a true partnership and we hope they’re as happy with the end result as we are.”

“DAF has been the UK market leader for 23 consecutive years,” said Easton. “With this excellent facility, its dedicated staff and our tremendous truck manufacturing facility in Leyland, I am confident we will further expand this strong position in the United Kingdom.”