Paper firm's £30m expansion 'will create 50 jobs'

The expansions is said to create 50 new jobs

A family firm that manufactures kitchen and toilet rolls has been given the go-ahead for a £30m production and storage base estimated to create 50 new jobs. 

Task Consumer Products on Stafford Road, Wolverhampton, is in the top 100 fastest growing private companies in the UK, and is the only company in the city to make the list.

Established in 2007, the business is one of the largest independent paper converters in the country, with a manufacturing capacity in excess of 100,000 tonnes a year.

The application to expand, approved by planners last week, was made by Sherborne Paper Ltd and Stoford Properties Ltd on behalf of the company, which currently has 128 full-time employees.

Stoford planning director Jo Russell told a meeting of the council’s planning committee that Task Consumer Products had a 15 per cent share of the toilet roll market and ranked 54th in The Sunday Times list of the UK's top 100 fastest growing private companies.

Ms Russell said: “Task are fortunate in having land on site within their ownership that they can extend to and create new floor space without the need to relocate outside of Wolverhampton.

"The site is also a brownfield site and a former landfill site, and therefore we are remediating it too.”

Planners earlier heard that the development would mean the loss of part of a Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation (SLINC).

However, the firm has put forward a compensatory payment to be spent on improvements to Pendeford Mill Nature Reserve and Northycote Farm.

Ms Russell said: “The site is also of local importance for nature conservation. Through our proposals we will look to improve areas on the site through bird and bat boxes, pollinator posts, log piles and so forth.

"We have also agreed with officers for a £200,000 contribution payable to off-site nature improvements.”

Task director Nikul Patel added: “This significant milestone marks a pivotal moment in our company’s growth and expansion plans."

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.

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