Yearsley Group's Seaham Cold Store Opens and Expansion Plans Announced

Yearsley Cold Storage and Distribution opened the doors to their new £12m depot at Seaham in County Durham at the beginning of August. Phase 1 of the site has been fully operational since this time with an 11,000 pallet capacity for cold and chilled storage. Before opening the site Yearsley Group announced their plans to expand the depot immediately to 22,000 pallet sites by October 2004.

Originally the plan was to build the cold storage facility in three phases as the client base developed. Following initial successes in winning new contracts from leading Blue Chip manufacturers, Yearsley Group are building the second phase immediately.

Harry Yearsley, Managing Director explained "With almost 75% of Phase 1 contracted to be full by the end of August we took the decision to build Phase 2 immediately. This gives us a capacity of 22,000 pallet spaces with the option to increase this to 33,000 in the near future"

Seaham is the fifth depot to be built for this rapidly expanding family owned company and the third phase built by Russells Construction of Trafford Park. The £12m depot offers the latest technology in cold storage and distribution built to offer the highest safety standards in the industry. 20 temperature controlled vehicles will be based at the depot. Yearsley Group is one of the largest cold storage companies in the UK with a national market share of 10% and a total capacity of 106,000 pallet spaces. Clients benefit from the latest in on-line information systems, state of the art cold stores and handling facilities plus satellite tracking in all vehicles. 70 new jobs have been created at the Depot and all staff have received full training.

One NorthEast, with funding from English Partnerships, was responsible for the development of the 38 acre Fox Cover industrial site, which is now home to the Yearsley Group Cold Store. The regional development agency also helped the company through a Regional Selective Assistance grant of up to £1 million (dependant upon employment) to help construct and equip the cold store.

Margaret Fay, chairman of One NorthEast, added: "This is terrific news for Yearsley Group and also the wider Seaham area which is set to benefit from the growth of this booming business and the local jobs it will create."