One of the UK’s biggest paper bag manufacturers, AP Burt, has moved from its Portishead base after 80 years of trading on its Harbour Road site.
The move into premises in First Avenue, Portbury, North Somerset, will ensure the jobs of 65 local employees will be protected, and put the firm in a strong position to enjoy future growth.
AP Burt supplies seven million bags each day (over a third of a billion bags each year) to some of Britain’s best-known supermarkets and fast food retailers – including Gregg’s, KFC, Waitrose and Morrisons. The company has prospered in recent years thanks to the continued growth in “food to go” packaging and move away from plastic bags.
James Nicholls, AP Burt’s MD stated that “After 80 years at Harbour Road we considered it the correct time to undertake a relocation and a redevelopment of the existing site. We tasked Williams Gunter Hardwick with coordinating the sale of the existing site on the best possible terms and to negotiate a relocation in the North Somerset district – all within a tight timescale.”
AP Burt has now vacated the Harbour Road site and is fully operational from a 52,000 sq ft property at First Avenue, Portbury.
Says James: “Malcolm Gunter at Williams Gunter Hardwick practically became our in-house property department during the period of negotiating the sale and identifying the relocation property. We are delighted with the dual outcome and can now look forward to the future at our new home.”
Malcolm Gunter, Director at Williams Gunter Hardwick commented: “The timing of the decision to relocate coincided with an upturn in market conditions – particularly for the residential sector – and this clearly worked in our favour.
“However the chronic shortage of available warehouse and production accommodation within North Somerset – and indeed wider area – did not make the task of identifying a suitable relocation property particularly straightforward. We’re therefore delighted that James and his colleagues have been able to complete their move and remain a significant North Somerset employer.”
The Harbour Road site totals approximately 10 acres and the planning consent was secured for six acres of residential and four acres of employment use; this has now been sold in its entirety to Taylor Wimpey.
