F Jones keeps growing with £2.5m expansion

May 14 2008 Evening Gazette

AN award-winning Teesside company is planning to sink a further £2.5m investment in its specialist stoneworking plant.

Planned for 2009, the project will add an additional 30,000sq ft to F Jones Cleveland’s Riverside Park operation, giving the company more production space for premium products, which, it said had not been hit by falling consumer spending.

It will invest another £500,000 in new equipment this year to meet orders for its marble, granite and quartz work surfaces, sold through shopfitters, architects, specifiers and kitchen and bathroom retailers.

Since announcing plans to build a new factory at Riverside Park in 2001, the family owned firm has invested £6m, expanding the facility to 55,000sq ft.

“We have completed phase three of development, but we’re already looking to phase four,” said Fred Jones, founder and chairman. “This will give us more production space, more slab automation and more space for transport offices.”

The company was recently named one of the best businesses in the region, taking the Small Business title at the North East Business Awards, organised by the Evening Gazette and its sister paper The Journal.

The firm said recently it expected to increase its workforce from 50 to 80 and its sales to £10m in the next two years.