East Midlands engineering firm Blackburn-Starling has opened premises in Bromsgrove to house a new arm of its business.
Steve White and his son Chris, the management team heading Blackburn-Starling’s new ICAT team, went straight to commercial agency John Truslove when they were looking for premises.
“They showed us three and the second property was just ideal – the right size with plenty of space for growth,” said Steve, the company’s ICAT framework manager.
Blackburn-Starling has now taken a five-year lease on 2,748 sq ft of space at Unit 7, at West Court on Buntsford Park Road, in Bromsgrove at a rental of £25,950 per annum.
It is the base for the company’s new Instrumentation, Control, Automation & Telemetry (ICAT) operations, with Chris White as ICAT senior project manager.
Mr White added: “Blackburn-Starling has been based in Nottingham since 1870, and now mostly manufactures electrical switchgear and controls for major utilities such as water companies. Chris and I joined three years ago with a background in the water industry and control instrumentation telemetry.
“This technology gives water companies remote control of equipment and operations across their estates, as well as the ability to constantly monitor data.
“We had already built strong relationships with Severn Trent in the past, and Blackburn-Starling backed our proposal for this new business with a £120,000 investment to set it up here in Bromsgrove, giving us better coverage of the south of the country.
“We have been here three months now and have built a team of 20, including sub-contractors, and have just taken delivery of our fleet of seven liveried vans. We are seeing a constant stream of work from the water utilities and are now looking to take on a couple more people.”
“Chris and I had worked with John Truslove in a previous role, so they were the first number we called when we got the go-ahead to launch in this area. They were very good, very helpful, and everything went very smoothly.”
Ben Truslove, joint managing director at John Truslove, said: “This is excellent news for the area, that an East Midlands company should choose Bromsgrove for their southern area base for a new operation.
“It brings jobs and an innovative new business to Worcestershire. We look forward to seeing the business continue to grow into the future.”
Mark Cornelius, a partner at London law firm Quastels, acted for Blackburn-Sherwood.