Work has started on a new factory in Huddersfield which is expected to create 50 jobs.
The 82,000sq ft industrial complex at St Andrew’s Road, Turnbridge, will provide a new home for adhesives, sealants and fillers manufacturer Polyseam – and is expected to enable it to expand its product range and in time increase its workforce from 39 at present to more than 100 as it builds up additional manufacturing lines.
Representatives of Polyseam, which currently operates from premises at nearby Shaw Park, Silver Street, joined others from main contractor Marshall (Building Contractors) Ltd, of Elland, for a sod-cutting ceremony to mark the start of work on the site.
Polyseam chief executive Kjetil Bogstad said that when completed in June, 2017, the complex would include offices, staff canteen, changing rooms including showers, research and development facilities, engineering facilities, a planning department, storehouse and three large manufacturing units.
The development is taking place on land formerly used as a 200-space Kirklees Council car park near the Cummins Turbo Technologies site.
The 27-week construction programme will involve digging out the remaining foundations of the terraced housing that used to occupy the site many years ago before sinking pilings and erecting the steel framework of the building.
Brick-and-block construction will by carried out before the installation of distinctive black cladding. At the height of construction, about 40 to 50 people will be working on site.
Polyseam has been seeking larger premises since 2010 to replace its leased premises at Silver Street.
Manufacturing director Andrew Sutulic said: “We will be moving from the leased premises where we have been manufacturing for the past 23 years to a purpose-built state-of-the-art site.”
He said:”If we had not found this site we would have had to move from Huddersfield, so this is ideal for keeping our local workforce.”
Mr Sutulic said employees would switch from Silver Street to St Andrew’s Road in phases – over a period of at least three months – as sections of the new building became available.
Polyseam has increased its exporting performance from 25% of total production to 75% with markets in Australia and New Zealand, the Middle East, the far East and Eastern Europe. Mr Sutulic said the company also had big plans to increase its presence in the UK.
Polyseam’s products include sealants for kitchen worktops, windows and ducting; fire cement for sealing joints on stoves and flues; and aglues for coving, wood, wallpaper and tiles.
