BOROUGH mayor Keith Butcher has thanked a growing company for its commitment to the borough.
Cllr Butcher dropped into Barbour ABI, which provides construction sales leads, contact data, CRM software and market intelligence to UK firms, after it expanded and relocated from Neston to Cheshire Oaks Business Park.
The park was speculatively built by Eric Wright Partnership in conjunction with European Regional Development Fund money and support from the borough council.
Its aim was to offer premises to local businesses looking to expand, but not wanting to move out of the borough in order to do so.
A borough council spokeswoman said: “The mayor went along to congratulate them on their recent expansion but also to thank them for their commitment to the borough and the local workforce.”
Cllr Butcher was joined by the borough council’s head of regeneration and economic development, Lisa Conway, and Chester Cllr Mike Jones – leader of the new Cheshire West and Chester Shadow Authority.
David Andrew, director at Barbour ABI said their staff of 120 had spent more than 15 years on the Hinderton Hall Estate in Neston, but relocated to fulfil expansion plans on the back of a “terrific period of growth”, backed by their parent company United Business Media (UBM).
He added: “Our new purpose-built office on the Cheshire Oaks Business Park provides a superb open-plan environment coupled with state of the art technology and meeting facilities for staff and customers.
“As a long-term employer of a large mainly locally based workforce, it’s a real testament to the ongoing confidence in the business that this kind of investment is being made, despite the current issues in the construction market that exist.”
He said Hinderton Point will still be the northern office for UBM Built Environment and UBM Live representing magazines, events, conferences and exhibitions across the division.
