Building firm to create Shropshire jobs with new premises
A building firm has finalised plans to move into new premises on a business park creating 20 jobs – with more to follow.
TG Builders Merchants will set up a branch on Bridgnorth's Chartwell Business Park and hopes to be up and running by next spring.
The announcement follows the granting of planning permission by Shropshire Council for a warehouse, sales area and office building at the site, which was recently bought by the family-owned Tudor Griffiths (TG) Group.
The firm says it expects to be the first to establish a business on the 11-plot park, though five of the other plots are currently earmarked for development. The new Tudor Griffiths branch is expected to open by 2016 and will be the group's eighth, to complement TG Hardwicks in Wolverley, near Kidderminster.
The news has been welcomed as a much needed boost for employment in the town.
Tudor Griffiths, TG Group chairman, said: "We are delighted to acquire this land and to have the opportunity to bring business and jobs to Bridgnorth.
"It's especially pleasing that this land, which has laid dormant for several years following the recession, can now be put to good use.
"We are confident that our decision to move on to Chartwell Park will encourage more businesses to move here."
William Parr, Shropshire councillor for Bridgnorth East and Astley Abbotts, said: "It's fantastic news for Bridgnorth as we need all the jobs we can get.
"We don't have many sites, but there is opportunity for businesses at Chartwell.
"Obviously we want to encourage further businesses to take up in the town.
"Bridgnorth doesn't want to become a 'dormitory' town where people have to leave to find work and we don't want our younger people to move away.
"I look forward to more companies coming to Bridgnorth to offer employment opportunities to young and old," he said.
The business park, in Stourbridge Road to the south east of the town, is a six-acre former brownfield site originally developed by Advantage West Midlands in 2009.
Work began to level and prepare the ground for new businesses as far back as 2006, but was beset by problems and setbacks, including travellers taking up residence on the land.
