AN HISTORIC Keighley company has launched a multi-million pound redevelopment which will see it leave its premises of 120 years.

Cardboard tube manufacturer J Stell & Sons will move three miles across the town to a new, purpose-built base on the former Oakworth Joinery site.

Over the next year the family-owned firm plans to create an extra nine jobs, taking its total workforce to 94.

Managing director Richard Guest said the company, formed in 1872, had outgrown its current site at Holme Mills, Fell Lane.

"The building is no longer suitable for our needs," he said.

"We manufacture over three floors and have a total of seven buildings we operate from, so consolidating our operations into one purpose-built centre will help improve the productivity and performance of the business.

"We've been at our current site a long time but employees are excited at the move and we will also be bringing a building that had fallen into disrepair back into use."

Work will start in September on stripping back the old Oakworth Joinery plant – in Royd Ings Avenue – to its concrete base and steelwork, and then rebuilding it.

The project is expected to take nine months to complete.

The scheme was made possible after Stell's – which specialises in producing cardboard cores and tubes, packaging and reels for a range of industry sectors – secured a £4.2 million finance deal from HSBC bank.

Mike Hemingway, HSBC's West Yorkshire area commercial director, said: “J Stell & Sons is an historic Yorkshire manufacturer that has managed to grow its business across several industry sectors, producing approximately 10,000 different products.

"This move gives the company a great platform on which to build its next stage of growth, creating jobs and boosting the local economy. We are pleased to have supported this move and look forward to working with the company going forward.”

Stell's also received an £88,500 grant from the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership’s Business Growth Programme, which is supported by the government’s Regional Growth Fund.

And advice throughout the fundraising process was provided by chartered accountancy firm, Clough & Company, whose managing partner Nigel Bullas said: “This deal demonstrates that banks do have a strong appetite when it comes to investing in well-managed firms that can produce and execute sound business plans.

"We were delighted to complete the deal, which will enable a thriving business to continue growing and creating new jobs in the area.”

James Dunn – a commercial property solicitor with AWB Charlesworth, which acted for Stell's when buying the new site – added: "It is vitally important that strong local businesses remain in Keighley."