A veterans’ charity in Kent is investing £15 million in a new factory that will create 80 jobs for former service personnel and people with disabilities, as part of a wider £45 million expansion. The investment forms part of a broader strategy that also includes housing and training, aimed at helping veterans build stable, long-term careers and independent lives once they leave the armed forces.
A name change and a new chapter
Royal British Legion Industries (RBLI), a charity founded in 1919, has rebranded as Royal British Veterans Enterprise (RBVE) to avoid confusion with the separate Royal British Legion charity. The new name arrives alongside its biggest investment in years: a £15 million, 3,960 square metre factory being built next to its existing site in Aylesford, Kent.
What the investment means
The new factory will expand RBVE’s manufacturing operations, which already produce more than 250,000 road, rail and commercial signs every year. The Aylesford site currently employs 156 people, with 105 beneficiaries supported across RBVE’s three factories in Kent, Surrey and Scotland. The expansion is expected to create 80 new jobs specifically for veterans and people with disabilities.
Training the next generation
Alongside the new factory, RBVE is building a Training Academy capable of supporting up to 100 veterans a year, helping them build practical skills and move into manufacturing careers. As a charity, RBVE reinvests all of its profits back into services for veterans and disabled people, rather than distributing them elsewhere.
Group Chief Executive Lisa Farmer said the investment reflected the charity’s wider purpose: “RBVE is about impact: helping veterans and disabled people by creating jobs, providing homes and building community.”
Part of a bigger vision
The factory investment takes RBVE’s total commitment to £45 million, and sits alongside a separate £30 million project called Centenary Village, which will deliver 100 new homes for veterans by 2027 — combining employment and housing support under one long-term plan.
Inside Centenary Village
Centenary Village is a £28 million, 100-home development at Aylesford that’s now nearing completion, with 80 homes already built and occupied and work just beginning on the final 20 (Kent Online, 27 February 2026). The village offers three types of accommodation: emergency housing for veterans facing homelessness, independent homes for those ready to move on with their lives, and supported living with nursing care for those who need extra help.
Because the village sits within a kilometre of RBVE’s factory and training academy, residents can move straight from housing into employment and training, rather than having to navigate separate systems. RBVE chief executive Lisa Farmer said the project would be “fully realised” by 2027, adding: “It will be a lasting blueprint for how to help people thrive after service”.
Also a VALOUR centre
RBVE’s Aylesford site has also been chosen as one of 14 national VALOUR centres, receiving £1 million in government funding to help connect local veterans with wider support services — linking this factory investment to a broader national push to improve support for former service personnel.
