Welsh exhibitions company moves to Avana Business Park, Newport

Left to right, Evan Whitson of Cushman & Wakefield; Steve Myers, estates manager at Rombourne; Steve Ballard, commercial director, and  Gareth Hall, managing director of EDB; and Michael Bruce of DLP Surveyors outside the EDB units at Avana Business Park, Newport.

Welsh exhibitions specialist EDB UK Ltd has leased 14,000 sq ft of warehouses and offices at the Avana Business Park in Newport.

The company is moving from Bedwas, Caerphilly to Avana to enable it to expand and reach its key UK markets in London and Birmingham more easily.

EDB managing director Gareth Hall said: “We are investing more than £100,000 in the two units to create a state-of-the art design studio and offices in one of the units and workshops, CNC production equipment, paint shop and storage in the other.”

EDB designs, manufactures and constructs exhibition stands for exhibitions throughout the UK, Europe and north America. Its major clients include Reed Exhibitions – the world’s largest exhibition organiser – and the Canadian aerospace industry.

Commercial property company Rombourne acquired the former Avana Bakeries premises at Rogerstone last year and is developing the nine-acre site as a Business Park to provide up to 200,000 sq ft of manufacturing, warehouse and office accommodation.

Rombourne is refurbishing and subdividing the former bakery accommodation to create a range of distribution and manufacturing units from 10,000 sq ft upwards, as well as smaller workshops and open storage compounds.

Steve Myers, estates manager at Rombourne, said: “EDB’s 15 year lease commitment to Avana follows soon after NTech signed to take 44,000 sq ft on the Business Park and its transformation into a modern business location for a wide range of companies is now really starting to take shape.”

EDB employs 20 people. Gareth Hall added: “We looked at a number of options for our move. Rombourne have been very helpful in enabling us to achieve our plans and are breathing new life into this area.”

Michael Bruce of joint letting agents DLP Surveyors said: “Rombourne is also now in the process of refurbishing approximately 12,000 sq ft of office accommodation at the site to create a new business centre and serviced office offering, all of which will be available in the near future.”

Evan Whitson at joint letting agents Cushman & Wakefield added: “Rombourne’s ongoing investment in the development of the Business Park is attracting strong interest and our client is now about to commence a further phase of strip-out works to ready the delivery of the remaining warehouse space”.

The former Avana Bakeries site is situated on the established Wern Industrial Estate in Rogerstone, two miles north of the recently improved Junction 28 of the M4 motorway and with fast access via the A467 dual-link road.