Up to 60 new jobs are to be created following a further major investment by Rainham Steel in North Lincolnshire.
The international steel stockholder and distributor has bought another 17 acres of land, taking on Althorpe Wharf at Keadby. It is to use the site to manufacture reinforcement bar products, investing £3.5 million to develop the location following the undisclosed property and land deal. It is also eyeing up reintroducing river terminal use there.
Essex-headquartered Rainham already services the UK, European and world markets from a 70 acre site and distribution facility in Scunthorpe. It will now develop the former RMS Trent Ports Limited site, which includes open storage land and a number of industrial warehousing facilities, over the next year. Plant and machinery is to be installed in existing facilities, with longer term plans to deliver a dedicated new building.
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Francis Micallef, operations director at Rainham Steel, said: “This is a really exciting announcement as we are going to be making a significant investment into this site to transform it into a northern reinforcement bar manufacturing site, adding to a similar one we have down south.
“We’ll initially be creating around 20 new jobs at the site, and we expect that number to increase to around 60 new jobs over the course of the year, as the site becomes fully operational.
“We’d actually looked around the site a few years ago as we’ve always enjoyed a good working relationship with RMS Trent Ports through their importing of steel. It wasn’t quite the right time then, but when we saw it on the market recently it was the perfect time and opportunity for us to add this new manufacturing facility.
“It’s obviously very pleasing to be able to put this large site into good use, expanding our operations and creating new employment in the region. We also have plans to reopen the wharf on site in the future too.”
The company supplies major steel fabricators, stockholders, construction companies, civil engineers and builders’ merchants, employing more than 180 members of staff. It already has four other sites in the Scunthorpe area, most recently expanding at Flixborough.
The land had previously been used by RMS to stock a variety of mainly bulk and steel based imports and exports. The company, which handles all types from cargo through the Humber ports, turned to Hull-based commercial property specialists Garness Jones to sell the site after it became surplus to requirements.
Chris Hyam, senior surveyor, handled the deal. He said: “We are delighted to have secured this sale“Following a short period of marketing we had strong levels of interest from developers and owner occupiers.
“It is an excellent acquisition for Rainham Steel, as they have secured a large site which can meet their expanding manufacturing and storage needs.
“The existing buildings allow for immediate expansion of their manufacturing processes and the surplus land allows for potential future development. It is a great deal for the local economy given it is leading to further significant investment and new jobs.”
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