diff --git a/plugins/org.springframework.ide.eclipse.core/src/org/springframework/ide/eclipse/core/java/classreading/CachingJdtMetadataReaderFactory.java b/plugins/org.springframework.ide.eclipse.core/src/org/springframework/ide/eclipse/core/java/classreading/CachingJdtMetadataReaderFactory.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..65589803c0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/plugins/org.springframework.ide.eclipse.core/src/org/springframework/ide/eclipse/core/java/classreading/CachingJdtMetadataReaderFactory.java
@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+/*******************************************************************************
+ * Copyright (c) 2012 Spring IDE Developers
+ * All rights reserved. This program and the accompanying materials
+ * are made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0
+ * which accompanies this distribution, and is available at
+ * http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html
+ *
+ * Contributors:
+ *     Spring IDE Developers - initial API and implementation
+ *******************************************************************************/
+package org.springframework.ide.eclipse.core.java.classreading;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.util.HashMap;
+import java.util.Map;
+
+import org.eclipse.jdt.core.IJavaProject;
+import org.springframework.core.io.Resource;
+import org.springframework.core.type.classreading.MetadataReader;
+import org.springframework.core.type.classreading.MetadataReaderFactory;
+
+/**
+ * @author Martin Lippert
+ * @since 3.2.0
+ */
+public class CachingJdtMetadataReaderFactory implements MetadataReaderFactory {
+	
+	private final JdtMetadataReaderFactory factory;
+	private final Map<String, MetadataReader> cache = new HashMap<String, MetadataReader>();
+	
+	public CachingJdtMetadataReaderFactory(IJavaProject project) {
+		this.factory = new JdtMetadataReaderFactory(project);
+	}
+
+	public MetadataReader getMetadataReader(String className) throws IOException {
+		synchronized(cache) {
+			if (!cache.containsKey(className)) {
+				cache.put(className, factory.getMetadataReader(className));
+			}
+		}
+		
+		return cache.get(className);
+	}
+
+	public MetadataReader getMetadataReader(Resource resource) throws IOException {
+		throw new JdtMetadataReaderException("'getMetadataReader' is not supported");
+	}
+
+}
diff --git a/plugins/org.springframework.ide.eclipse.core/src/org/springframework/ide/eclipse/core/java/classreading/JdtMetadataReader.java b/plugins/org.springframework.ide.eclipse.core/src/org/springframework/ide/eclipse/core/java/classreading/JdtMetadataReader.java
index 986581959a..3453992a5b 100644
--- a/plugins/org.springframework.ide.eclipse.core/src/org/springframework/ide/eclipse/core/java/classreading/JdtMetadataReader.java
+++ b/plugins/org.springframework.ide.eclipse.core/src/org/springframework/ide/eclipse/core/java/classreading/JdtMetadataReader.java
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*******************************************************************************
- * Copyright (c) 2009 Spring IDE Developers
+ * Copyright (c) 2009, 2012 Spring IDE Developers
  * All rights reserved. This program and the accompanying materials
  * are made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0
  * which accompanies this distribution, and is available at
@@ -21,22 +21,33 @@
 
 /**
  * @author Christian Dupuis
+ * @author Martin Lippert
  * @since 2.2.5
  */
 public class JdtMetadataReader implements MetadataReader {
 
 	private final IType type;
+	private AnnotationMetadata annotationMetadata;
+	private ClassMetadata classMetadata;
 
 	public JdtMetadataReader(IType type) {
+		System.out.println("JdtMetadataReader created for: " + type.getFullyQualifiedName());
 		this.type = type;
 	}
 
 	public AnnotationMetadata getAnnotationMetadata() {
-		return new JdtAnnotationMetadata(type);
+		if (this.annotationMetadata == null) {
+			System.out.println("getAnnotationMetadata for: " + type.getFullyQualifiedName());
+			this.annotationMetadata = new JdtAnnotationMetadata(type);
+		}
+		return this.annotationMetadata;
 	}
 
 	public ClassMetadata getClassMetadata() {
-		return new JdtClassMetadata(type);
+		if (this.classMetadata == null) {
+			this.classMetadata = new JdtClassMetadata(type);
+		}
+		return this.classMetadata;
 	}
 
 	public Resource getResource() {
diff --git a/plugins/org.springframework.ide.eclipse.metadata/src/org/springframework/ide/eclipse/metadata/process/JdtConfigurationClassPostProcessor.java b/plugins/org.springframework.ide.eclipse.metadata/src/org/springframework/ide/eclipse/metadata/process/JdtConfigurationClassPostProcessor.java
index c2426e3792..efac802f0d 100644
--- a/plugins/org.springframework.ide.eclipse.metadata/src/org/springframework/ide/eclipse/metadata/process/JdtConfigurationClassPostProcessor.java
+++ b/plugins/org.springframework.ide.eclipse.metadata/src/org/springframework/ide/eclipse/metadata/process/JdtConfigurationClassPostProcessor.java
@@ -39,8 +39,8 @@
 import org.springframework.ide.eclipse.beans.core.model.process.IBeansConfigPostProcessor;
 import org.springframework.ide.eclipse.beans.core.model.process.IBeansConfigRegistrationSupport;
 import org.springframework.ide.eclipse.core.java.JdtUtils;
+import org.springframework.ide.eclipse.core.java.classreading.CachingJdtMetadataReaderFactory;
 import org.springframework.ide.eclipse.core.java.classreading.JdtAnnotationMetadata;
-import org.springframework.ide.eclipse.core.java.classreading.JdtMetadataReaderFactory;
 import org.springframework.ide.eclipse.core.java.classreading.JdtMethodMetadata;
 import org.springframework.ide.eclipse.core.model.java.JavaModelSourceLocation;
 import org.springframework.ide.eclipse.core.model.validation.ValidationProblem;
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ public void postProcess(final IBeansConfigPostProcessingContext postProcessingCo
 
 		ConfigurationClassPostProcessor processor = new ConfigurationClassPostProcessor();
 		processor.setSourceExtractor(new DelegatingSourceExtractor(project.getProject()));
-		processor.setMetadataReaderFactory(new JdtMetadataReaderFactory(project));
+		processor.setMetadataReaderFactory(new CachingJdtMetadataReaderFactory(project));
 		processor.setProblemReporter(new JdtAnnotationMetadataProblemReporter(postProcessingContext));
 
 		processor.processConfigBeanDefinitions(new ReaderEventListenerForwardingBeanDefinitionRegistry(