Taking the lot for jobs for Plymouth

More jobs are heading to Plymouth after the Council secured its first tenants for new business units at Langage Science Park – and they are taking the lot!

Contracts have just been signed between the Council and Dartmouth Foods who plan to take over all nine units available at the park as part of its exciting business expansion plans.

The high-end food retailers plan to invest £3 million into a purpose-built facility for the company which specialises in providing high quality cooked and smoked poultry products for companies such as Marks & Spencer.

The move not only safeguards around 78 existing jobs, including 30 Plymouth-based staff, but the company will employ another 22 people when the facility opens in July and a minimum of a further 65 by 2019.

Leader of Plymouth City Council, Councillor Tudor Evans, said: “This is just brilliant news for the city, for our working families and for the Council.

“With this one contract, we will not only fill all the units, we hit the target we set for creating jobs from this scheme.

“We have the highest concentration of manufacturing employment of any city south of the Midlands and need space with up-to-date facilities to attract companies.

“We set about building facilities in the hope of getting businesses and this has paid off already. I’m delighted to welcome Dartmouth Foods to Plymouth. We already have a number of significant food businesses here and are really pleased to be able to welcome them to the city.”

Director of Dartmouth Foods Edward Obolensky said: “We have exciting plans to build our businesses and needed somewhere we can make this happen, so were delighted when this site came to our attention.

“We have already built a really good relationship with the Council and have been impressed with the support and their overall approach. We look forward to making an even more successful venture in Plymouth.”

Plymouth City Council invested £2.7 million to build highly specified and sustainable workspace scheme at the business park, which is just off the A38.

In 2014 the Council began to develop Hearder Court as a speculative scheme to attract employment and provide opportunities to both existing and new businesses.

The development comprises nine units of varying sizes and the entire site was designed with the aim of being flexible.

The development was named after one of the city’s unsung heroes, Jonathan Nash Hearder, a Victorian electrical engineer, inventor and educator who developed the induction coil and was an advisor on the first Atlantic cable.

The units are highly sustainable incorporating energy saving features such as solar photovoltaic systems, efficient heating systems, LED lighting and increased levels of insulation.

They also have generous service yard areas, dedicated parking, cycle shelters, waste recycling zones and electrically operated loading doors.