Sweet factory up for auction

A former sweet factory is up for auction today with a price tag of more than £400,000 after planning permission was secured for homes on the Black Country site.

Sela House in West Bromwich, formerly a brewery warehouse, sold earlier this year at auction for £330,000.

But it is back on the market at a Bond Wolfe and Bigwood's auction today with a guide price of £425,000 to £450,000.

Sela House now has planning permission for seven apartments and is one of the star lots at the auction at Villa Park.

Bond Wolfe managing partner James Mattin said: "Sela House is a high profile building that was once a Mitchell & Butlers brewery warehouse.

"Now it has residential planning permission we are expecting some fierce bidding to secure it."

Sela took over the Thynne Street building in 1922 after growing out of its previous properties.

Five successive generations of the Roberts family used traditional methods and recipes to create their sweets, which were cooked in open copper pans over naked gas flames.

Despite having more than a century of history in West Bromwich, the owners sold up in March and moved their operations to Wales.

The building was sold for £330,000, which was then £80,000 more than the upper guide price indicated by auctioneers Bond Wolfe.

For this month's sale the guide price is up again - because permission has been given for the site to be redeveloped into homes.

Sela House is one of 80 lots that are set to go under the hammer at the sale, which is being held at the Holte Suite at Aston Villa's stadium in Birmingham.

• Earlier this year deals worth £30 million to regenerate sites in Walsall and Sandwell to provide more than 200 new affordable homes were announced.

Housing association Matrix Partnership is behind the proposals to build on former brownfield land in Bloxwich and West Bromwich.