12 | Aycliffe Today Business
Bringing Aycliffe Business Park Together | 13
STILLER
CONTINUES
GROWTH WITH
NEW £1.1M
WAREHOUSE
Stiller Warehousing and
Distribution commercial
manager Paul Stiller next to the
firm’s new £1.1m warehouse,
which is under construction on
Aycliffe Business Park.
Newton Aycliffe family business Stiller Warehousing
and Distribution is continuing its impressive growth
by investing more than £1m in a new state-of-the-art
storage facility.
By Martin Walker
The 40,000 square feet warehouse
will increase by nearly 50% the firm's
warehousing capacity at its premises in the
heart of Aycliffe Business Park.
Stiller, which employs 140 people, has
ploughed £1.1m into the new unit, which
will include a new 21st Century racking
system and VNA (Very Narrow Aisle) handling
equipment.
The multi-user warehousing facility,
which has been constructed by local steel
firm Finley Structures, will increase Stiller's
storage footprint to 200,000 sq ft, and is
expected to be completed by August.
It comes just four months after Stiller
announced a new £15m three-year deal with
food packaging firm Coveris Rigid, which is
expected to increase annual turnover from
£10m to between £12.5m and £13m this
year.
Commercial manager Matthew Stiller said:
"We were struggling to accommodate our
current workload and order book within the
space that existed between our own site
and another property we currently lease at
Central Park on Aycliffe Business Park.
"This is a long-term investment for the
company and part of our 10-year business
plan to sustain employment and create new
jobs in the future.
"We do have a full pipeline of work at the
moment but this expansion will enable us
to be more efficient and to take on more
business.
"The distribution side of the business has
grown significantly over the last 18 months,
and this is another indication of how well the
business is doing.
"It's as a direct result of an increase in
sales which in turn is a result of the great job
our sales customer services and operations
teams are doing."
Work began on the new warehouse in
February, with initial work carried out by
Richardson's Builders of Darlington.
Finley Structures fabricated and erected
140 tonnes of steel as well as erecting the
cladding, supplied by Tata Steel.
The building has been designed by ADG
Architects of Darlington and BDN Engineers
of Durham.
Mr Stiller added: "We're very proud of the
fact we have used local companies to build
this new development, which is supporting
local jobs.
"The new building will include new racking
and VNA machining, and will be much more
space-efficient, providing us with storage for
more than 5,000 pallets.
"It is particularly exciting to have this
opportunity to develop a modern and
efficient warehouse on our site and we look
forward to attracting additional warehousing
business as a result."
Stiller invested in a fleet of 12 new vehicles
in 2014, including two 12-tonne vehicles,
two urban trailers and four long double-deck
trailers, and brought in five n