(September 8, 2011) The United Kingdom's largest car plant was opened 25 years ago today, and the Nissan Sunderland Plant is marking the 25th anniversary with special ceremonies.

Since 1986, Nissan Sunderland Plant has rewritten the record books for UK car production, with volumes increasing from 5,139 Bluebirds in that first year to 423,262 cars in 2010 — which was the first time ever that a UK car plant had made more than 400,000 vehicles in one year.

Nissan has manufactured more than 6.2 million vehicles and 12 different models at Sunderland, including Bluebird, Primera, Micra, Almera, Note, Qashqai and Juke.

“I celebrate this milestone with the Nissan Sunderland Plant and commend the significant achievements of the plant and its employees over the past 25 years,” said Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Nissan Motor Co.

A Bluebird is Job 1 at the
Nissan plant in 1986

“As the UK’s largest car plant, biggest car exporter, and soon battery plant — with battery production for the Nissan LEAF planned for next year — Sunderland is a beacon of Nissan’s exemplary leadership in manufacture, management and technology, which define a global car company in the 21st century.”

To mark this milestone, a ceremony will be held at the plant in which a time capsule will be buried on the site — recreating the ceremony held when construction of the plant began. The new time capsule updates the artifacts placed inside the original, including a model Qashqai, a telephone directory, newspapers from today, a Sunderland AFC shirt and items donated by regional partners such as the North East Chamber of Commerce, the CBI, Sunderland Council and Gateshead College.

Nissan celebrates
6 million cars built at the
UK plant earlier this year

Of the 430 people who were employed at the plant on Sept. 8, 1986, 133 remain employed, and today’s ceremony will be performed by two of those original members of staff: Nissan’s Senior Vice President for Manufacturing in Europe, Trevor Mann, and Nissan’s Vice President for Manufacturing in the UK, Kevin Fitzpatrick.

This 25th anniversary year has been a special one for Nissan in the UK. As well as celebrating a record year for production, staff produced their six millionth car in January, shortly before the first shipment of the 100% electric Nissan LEAF arrived in the UK in February.

Staff are now gearing up for production starting at the company’s new lithium-ion battery plant ahead of Nissan LEAF production beginning at Sunderland in 2013. Production of the new Qashqai will take Nissan’s total investment in its UK manufacturing base to £3.3 billion ($5.28 billion).