East meets West as Neill & Brown delivers jobs boost

Neill & Brown Global Logistics is making a £2.5m investment in Hull with assistance from the Humber Local Enterprise Partnership’s Growing the Humber fund.

The company is building a new 40,000 sq. ft. warehouse facility at Marfleet Environmental Technology Park on Hedon Road to provide an enhanced service to existing customers and as part of its strategy for growth.

Neill & Brown was awarded 20 per cent of the overall investment, conditional on job creation over a three-year period. The money is part of the £30m allocated to the Humber LEP from the Government’s Regional Growth Fund.

Work has already started on the site, and is being carried out by the developer Stoneferry Marfleet Ltd. It is scheduled to be operational by this September and will include storage and distribution facilities as well as additional loading bays.

Neill & Brown CEO Peter Brown said that the investment represented a significant chapter in the company’s overall strategy and that 26 sustainable jobs were expected to be created within the next three years.

“We have seen steady progress despite the difficult economic climate. To continue on this trajectory we have to look to the future and ensure that we have the capacity to take care of the rising demand for our services.

Mr Brown, who is also a director of World Trade Centre Hull & Humber, added that having two facilities east and west of Hull would be of real benefit to customers when work started on the Castle Street section of the A63.

Colin Moody, Neill & Brown’s managing director, said that the new warehouse would assist the company in developing more export and import work to and from Europe.

“We already have a thriving European business and can see the potential for further development. The new site will give us the ability to provide an enhanced service to our existing customers and the edge in gaining new work due to increased capacity and proximity to the ports.”

The latest investment follows a previous development at Marfleet Environmental Technology Park in 2011, when Neill & Brown joined forces with Japanese-owned chemical company Nippon Gohsei to create a new 60,000 sq. ft. laboratory, manufacturing, storage and distribution centre for the innovative packaging product Soarnol. Neill & Brown recently announced that it would support Hull’s City of Culture bid through the Angel scheme to which it is donating £17,000 over the next four years.

Mr Brown said: “Neill & Brown’s success can be attributed, in no small part, to its location and the people of Hull, and we want to contribute to the future prosperity of the city in as many ways as we can.”

Neill & Brown now employs 107 staff from Livingstone Road and from Marfleet and works throughout the UK, Europe and worldwide.