Hillington Park has made a strong start to the year with the first letting at the ground-breaking 132,774 sq ft West 100 & 200 development.
Kayfoam Ltd, the largest converter of industrial and technical foams in Scotland, has taken the largest unit in West 100 (25,476 sq ft) which will allow the business to push forward its ambitious growth plans over the coming years.
The company is a significant employer at Hillington Park with the new investment set to add a further five jobs – including a number of apprentices – to the 60 strong workforce.
Hillington Park 100 & 200 is the biggest speculative new build scheme on Scotland’s largest industrial estate in over 25 years, with West 100 now complete and the completion of West 200 scheduled for March. Muir Construction is delivering a high quality BREEAM ‘Very Good’ scheme with each unit having large secure yard, office accommodation and a sustainable energy-efficient specification.
This focus on sustainability was a major attraction to Kayfoam and its parent company, Caledonian Industries Ltd, who have had a manufacturing presence at Hillington Park since 1970.
Alan Thornton MBE, Managing Director at Caledonian Industries, commented: “This is an important move for the business. We have always had a strong focus on sustainability and the growing importance of packaging waste in recent years has meant we have been ideally placed to take advantage of a number of new business opportunities, including a recently signed co-operation with Detroit Michigan based KTM Industries Inc. to manufacture extruded starch foam in Scotland.
“Hillington Park has been Caledonian Industries’ home for more than 50 years and we wanted to continue our development at the park. The West 100 & 200 development is a large, modern industrial facility that is not only aligned to our sustainable business philosophy, but is perfectly placed to help us deliver on our growth plans moving forward. It has been a real partnership approach to get the company to this stage, with support from Scottish Enterprise and others helping us achieve our business goals.”
Grant Edmondson, Commercial Director at Hillington Park, commented: “We have worked with the team at Caledonian Industries for many years and I am delighted that the business has committed to expand its manufacturing operations at Hillington Park.
“This £14m speculative development is a major investment by Frasers Property so it is pleasing to conclude the first major letting before completion. The development is looking well-timed given the lack of availability of industrial and logistics space in the Greater Glasgow market and we are fielding a good number of occupier enquiries from logistics, manufacturing and construction services sectors. This confidence is enabling us to now turn our attention to a second phase to be called Hillington West 300 & 400 which will largely repeat the design and specification of Phase 1.”
Hillington Park is a key manufacturing hub in Renfrewshire, with current occupiers also operating across sectors including transport & last mile logistics, automotive, construction services, engineering, retail, technology and the public sector.