Hadley Group gets approval for new HQ
Growing engineering group Hadley has got the green light to build its new head office on the site of the former West Midlands Fire Service training academy.
The UK’s largest cold roll formed sections manufacturer bought the building in Dartmouth Road, Smethwick, in May last year.
A planning application to provide new offices on the site along with extending its manufacturing centre on the adjoining site in Gaitskell Way has now been approved by Sandwell Council.
Hadley Group currently employs 118 at Gaitskell Way and 322 at other sites in the West Midlands including its current head office in Downing Street, Smethwick.
Group deputy managing director Ben Towe said that the new development would protect existing jobs in the business rather than creating lots of new employment.
The old fire service buildings, including the four-storey training facility, will be demolished to make way for the development which will also include a new gatehouse,weighbridge and security fencing.
The three-storey office building of 27,674 sq ft will be to the front of the site and the development will take place in three phases and will also provide 291 car parking spaces and 13 trailer and HGV parking spaces.
Work on demolishing the old building has already begun but Mr Towe said that no date for the start of work on the offices and extension had yet been set.
The new production building will be 99,501 sq ft and will be linked to the current building by a covered area.
The 4.2-acre Dartmouth Road site, which was used by the fire service from 1992 until 2014, was put on the market in 2016 and was bought by Hadley for more than the £1.5 million guide price.
Hadley said at the time of the purchase that its aim was to create a flagship manufacturing site creating more local jobs and enabling rapid growth for the company in-keeping with its 2020 vision of further increasing worldwide production capacity and of diversification into new markets for cold roll forming.
The group was founded in 1964 and operates from five UK sites as well as overseas facilities including in Germany, the United Arab Emirates and Thailand.
The group employs more than 500 people worldwide and has grown to have an annual turnover of more than £100 million.
