WORK is well underway at Teesside family retailer Charles Clinkard’s new £3m head office and warehouse.
The 5,000 sqm building is taking shape close to the Royal Mail Sorting Office at Cannon Park, Middlesbrough.
Work is due to be complete by January 2016.
Managing director Charles Clinkard said: “It’s an exciting time for the company and will be the start of a new chapter in the family’s 90 year retailing history.
“We have 33 stores across the country and our online sales are increasing year on year which means we need to increase our warehouse space to meet demand.
“My grandparents opened the first Charles Clinkard store in Middlesbrough in 1924.
“We’ve continued to trade in the town ever since so when we were looking for a location for a new head office and discovered this site was available it was serendipity.”
The company is forecast to achieve £6m in online sales this year, with that figure expected to rise to £10m over the next three years.
Up to 100 people are employed in the head office and warehouse and as online sales increase Charles Clinkard is hopeful more jobs will be created.
The company estimates that for every £1m increase in online sales five jobs will be created.
Leading the build at Cannon Park is Dennis McLuckie, construction project manager.
He and his 40-strong team of local workers from McLuckie Projects are building the new head office and warehouse around the original steel framework of the original building.
More than 30,000 bricks are being used, along with additional steel framework, to support a 1,300 sqm suspended concrete deck which will be home to a suite of offices.
The new building will boast solar panels and solar controlled anti-glare glass, making it hugely energy efficient.
It’s the second superstructure Dennis and his team have worked on in Teesside in the last 12 months – they built the new Barker and Stonehouse store at Teesside Park which opened earlier this year.
Charles Clinkard will move from Eveline House – its current head office and warehouse at Preston Farm – when the lease expires later this year.