Arnold Laver invests £3m in north-east

Timber and building materials supplier The Arnold Laver Group plans to invest £3m to transform a former shipbuilding steel plate works in the north-east into an Arnold Laver Timber World Call Collect depot.

The site, which forms part of the Hebburn Shipyard, will allow the company to replace its current premises, FJ Reeves Timber World on West Side on Tyne Dock, South Shields.

Plans for a change of use of existing industrial premises have been submitted to South Tyneside Council and, if successful, the proposal will safeguard 50 jobs and increase staff levels to 90 over the next five years.

Arnold Laver director Mark Bower said the project is part of the company's national expansion plans. Once planning approval has been given, work is expected to start this summer and will be completed by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Arnold Laver Timber World in Leeds is supplying Trus Joist's Silent Floor System to a new complex of 17 luxury town houses at a new Churchfields development near Barnsley, south Yorkshire.