FEATURE
Proud history – the Wilton Centre is marking its 50th anniversary this year.
MILESTONE MOMENTUM
Wilton celebrates as it looks to the future
Wilton Centre is marking a key milestone in its history with eyes fixed firmly on the future.
The site near Redcar has secured planning permission for a major expansion and, under its operator Pioneer Group, is supporting companies who are spearheading moves towards a circular economy.
As it looks ahead, Wilton Centre is also looking back 50 years when – between October 1974 and September 1975 – 1,300 employees started arriving in the building: the new headquarters of ICI’ s petrochemicals division.
Among the staff were 135 accountants, 155 secretaries and 426 engineers.
They enjoyed working conditions which were the envy of their families and friends.
ICI had its own bus service and, on site, there was a bank, travel agency, shop, restaurants, cafés and even a bar.
Unusually for the times, the company opened a day nursery in the early 1990s and colleagues spent time together outside work at the nearby Wilton Castle Club, with its swimming pool, gym, croquet lawn and wine cellar, and on organised day trips to Blackpool and London.
The company provided an executive car service for the directors, who had their own dining room, as well as access to an ICI plane kept at Teesside International Airport.
For Eileen Milward, who started work as a shorthand typist at Wilton Centre in 1975 and became a senior PA before finally leaving in 2009, one of the over-riding memories is the quality of the bosses’ carpet.
“ You knew you were in the directorate corridor because of the thickness of the pile,” she recalls.
History – this hand-drawn diagram from 1974 was given to staff moving to the newly-built Wilton Centre.
No wonder the place was known as The Wilton Hilton.
The break-up of ICI is well-documented and culminated in a takeover by Akzo- Nobel in 2008.
By then, although the Wilton Centre building had been bought and sold by investors, much of the ICI expertise remained.
“ The difference now is that the researchers and chemists are discovering ways to reverse the processes that were originally developed here,” says site director Steve Duffield, who came to Wilton Centre in September 1996 for four weeks and has stayed ever since.
From its offices in the centre, Mura Technology – for example – has developed Mura Wilton: its commercial-scale hydrothermal advanced plastic recycling facility in nearby Wilton International.
Waste plastic such as frozen food bags, ready-meal trays and chocolate bar wrappers- which are normally incinerated, sent to landfill or“ downcycled” to create lower-value items such as bin bags – are broken down to a molecular level, returning them to their original chemical and oil building blocks.
The result is a hydrocarbon feedstock that can be used to make new, virginquality plastic.
There are around 60 businesses currently based at Wilton Centre and, after approval of a planning application earlier this year, potentially space for a lot more with Pioneer Group’ s ambition to create nearly 150,000 sq ft of new technical and manufacturing space, laboratories and offices.
They will be built inside the boundary of the Teesside Freeport, which borders the centre, and occupiers of the new Wilton Freeport Development will benefit from a range of incentives, including savings on stamp duty, business rates and national insurance contributions.
Steve says the go-ahead for the project is a perfect way to celebrate in Wilton Centre’ s landmark year.
“ While we’ re looking back at some of the fantastic times here, this is a great way to kick off the next 50 years,” he adds.
“ As these plans become reality, we will be able to look forward to a very exciting future.”
For more information about business space at Wilton Centre contact: Claire Morton: c. morton @ wiltoncentre. com Richard Wilson: r. wilson @ doddsbrown. co. uk Chris Hartnell: Chris. Hartnell @ carterjonas. co. uk
And to find out more about Pioneer visit: thepioneergroup. com The voice of business in the Tees region | 85