A HUDDERSFIELD firm is among a clutch of companies moving to a £40m industrial development in Kirklees.
And when completed, the Bretton Business Park site will provide hundreds of jobs.
TC Bathrooms is set to quit its premises at Jubilee Way, Grange Moor, in an £11m move to a new 200,000sq ft headquarters and distribution centre at the Bretton Business Park scheme in Dewsbury.
The manufacturer, formed in 2000, is one of the UK’s fastest growing bathroom brands selling more than 30 traditional and contemporary bathrooms suites as well as showers, steam cabinets, basins and stands, whirlpool baths and taps.
TC Bathrooms will be joined at Bretton Park by wholesale photography company JP Distribution, which has signed up for a 48,000sq ft unit, and A&J Fabtech, a company which designs and makes steel work for items such as chimneys, bridges and pressure vessels.
Both companies are local to the Kirklees area – with JP Distribution moving from Heckmondwike while A&J Fabtech will quit its premises in Batley.
In total, Bretton Park will provide nine modern units. Six are already up and running while the remainder will be completed by November. Occupants on the site include Kirklees Council, beds and bedding firm Sleepmode, Fast Alloys and plastic products firm Spafield Displays.
The scheme – which offers more than 500,000sq ft of warehouse, office and manufacturing space – is being marketed by property agents GVA Grimley and Carter & Co on behalf of developers PPG Land and Clugston Estates.
Paul Crabtree, development surveyor for PPG in Leeds, said: “This is a significant investment in Dewsbury and Kirklees.
“The site was acquired four-and-a-half years ago when it was a disused gasworks. We have been through the planning process and built the infrastructure such as roads and drains – and we have had good support from the local authority.”
Rob Oliver, of GVA Grimley, said: “It was always the hope that Bretton Park would attract successful local companies needing to relocate to bigger and more modern premises – and that has proved to be the case.
“Employees are an important part of any business and by being able to relocate locally, these companies are more likely to retain their skilled staff.”
Mr Oliver said the success of Bretton Park provided an antidote to “overly negative” assessments of the regional economy.
“Money may be tight, but banks are focusing lending on companies that have been around for the past 10 or 15 years and have a good track record. The companies that are taking space at Bretton Park have such a track record.”
