Title: Roberts Mart move into new purpose built factory
Publication: Leeds business update
Date: May 2004
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For more than 120 years Leeds-based chamber member Roberts Mart, one of uk's leading producers of plastic and paper packaging, has occupied the same site in the city.
But now the company is preparing for a move - to a large purpose built, state-of-the-art factory just down the road.
Roberts Mart chairman and managing director John Roberts , the fifth generation of his family at the company's helm, but the first turf on the site of the new factory at Thornes Farm Business Park, off Pontefract Lane, in a ceremony watched by his sons William and Ben who are also members of the board.
Sinking the first spade into the ground signalled the beginning of a new era for Roberts Mart - and of a new push to increase its presence in a competitive market place.
The company started life as a paper merchant in 1852, operating from premises in lady Lane, Leeds. Yet three decades later on came a move to Bank Mills, in East Street, where Roberts Mart has remained. However come 2004, when the new premises are ready, the old mill will be converted into a complex of almost 200 up-market riverside apartments.
The company's seven-acre site at Thornes Farm will house a single storey, 80,000 sq ft. factory with 20,000 sq ft. of office space on two floors, all of which will be a far cry from running the business on a six floor building built in the 1820's.
The new premises will give the company a better chance of winning orders in an increasingly competitive field as the development is expected to be followed by the securing of BRC/IOP accreditation, a hygiene standard that is becoming a must for any business in the food retail sector. It will mean Roberts Mart's new premises being recognised as one of the most hygienic and environmentally friendly factories in the country.
He knows he will be overseeing one of the biggest business developments of its kind in Leeds and is more than happy that the project will secure jobs of his 120 staff - and provide for a possible expansion of the workforce.
"The start of work on the new factory is the culmination of more than ten years of discussion and planning," he says.
"We never thought there would be a new use for our old buildings but then we did the deal which will bring new homes in the current vogue of loft-style apartments and also provided the funding for us to move.
"The catalyst was the significant rise in the value of Bank Mills because people want to live on the watersides. However it was something of a relief when it all went through and it is defiantly the biggest thing that has ever happened to this company."
John Roberts and his sons see the initial post-move challenge being consolidation of their company's already strong market position through the provision of a better standard do service - followed by a move into new fields. And to further this aim there are already plans in place for a major capital investment in machinery. Watch this space!!

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