An online vehicle remarketing and recycling firm has secured planning permission for a 31-acre site in East Kilbride with the promise of "many" local jobs with it.
Copart UK's new operation centre will take over the former Motorola and Jeyes factory sites, doubling their operational capabilities in Scotland.
Originally announced last year, work is now due to start on the new centre supporting Copart’s continued growth alongside their existing centre in Whitburn and recycling centre in Inverkeithing.
The venture is expected to bring many new job opportunities to the local area, including drivers, yard operatives, and customer service representatives, and will be fully operational in 2023.
Regeneration of the derelict site is sure to be welcomed locally following East Kilbride's long line of lost industry over the last decade.
In 2013, cleaning product firm Jeyes confirmed they were closing their factory with the loss of 110 jobs. The Kelvin factory had operated since 1970.
And semi-conductor maker Freescale, who had a research and development base in Kelvin Industrial Estate – a facility established by Motorola in 1969 – ceased manufacturing in 2009 which led to the loss of around 850 jobs.
Phil Briggs from Copart UK told Lanarkshire Live : “We’re passionate about continuously growing and improving our services to customers, so we’re very excited to secure final planning permission for our new operation centre in East Kilbride, which will provide annual storage capacity for over 49,000 vehicles.
“Alongside our existing 30-acre site in Whitburn, it offers the potential for Copart to handle around 100,000 cars per year across Scotland, doubling our operational capabilities in this part of the UK.
"With extreme weather events increasing in Scotland, the provision of latent storage capacity is more important than ever.”
This expansion in Scotland is part of Copart’s ambitious growth and investment programme to meet continued demand from their customers, including most of the UK’s major insurance companies and thousands of nationwide automotive customers.
The company’s extensive reinvestment strategy combines a programme of land acquisition with continuous improvement at existing sites and reinvestment in transport, services, and technology.
East Kilbride is a strategic location close to Glasgow with good transport links, which gives Copart and its customers a significant northern hub.
The provision of further storage capacity and scale will also increase the geographical reach of their fast and efficient surge management services, in response to an increasing number of extreme weather events in Scotland.
As part of Copart’s ongoing sustainability refurbishment programme, facilities at the new site will be constructed responsibly and designed to be inclusive, energy efficient, and eco-friendly.
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