St Francis Group announces further land sale in Kidderminster
St Francis Group, a leading UK-based property development and investment group and an expert in brownfield development and regeneration has announced the sale of 3.6 acres of land at its premier 74-acre Silverwood’s Business Park mixed-use development in Kidderminster.
The land is to be utilised to build new manufacturing, testing, warehouse and office facilities for Barton Firtop, a world leading manufacturer of filtration products, that will enable three existing sites to merge into a purpose built, ‘state of the art’ plant. It is anticipated that the phase one development shall provide 40,000 sq ft of facilities and employment for up to 100 people with a phase two expansion planned to follow to increase this to 60,000 sq ft and potentially an additional 50 employees.
Commenting on the deal St Francis development director Gareth Williams said: “We are very happy to welcome Barton Firtop to our premier Silverwood’s Business Park development and to support their next phase of growth and expansion needs This deal follows several other land- sales during 2018 which now brings the park to practically 90 per cent occupancy with only a few plots remaining. Silverwood’s is a real success story locally, creating much needed new housing, community facilities, leisure attractions and retail space in the process creating several hundred new jobs from the local community.”
Kevin Troughton, managing director at Barton Firtop said “This is a really exciting time for the Company enabling our current level of growth to progress to the next stage. Our company currently has space limitations and this problem is compounded by operating between three separate sites, so this new-build will enhance our capabilities and enable us to meet ever-increasing capacity requirements, ultimately resulting in further increases in turnover and staffing levels.
"Over the last decade the company has more than doubled its staff base and with this acquisition it remains on course to expand further, based on the increasing demand for our world leading filtration products that are supplied to prestigious clients around the globe.”
John Dillon of GJS Dillon Commercial Property Consultants advised Barton Firtop on their acquisition. He explained that finding sites and existing warehouse/industrial facilities in Worcestershire was practically impossible at the moment without the help of an experienced chartered surveyor with local connections with landowners, property owners, pension funds and commercial agents.
