ONE of the region’s biggest building materials suppliers has moved out of Newcastle city centre after 140 years as part of its expansion plan.

JT Dove has handed over the keys to its headquarters at Orchard Street, behind Newcastle Central Station, as part of its plans to better serve its customers by setting up satellite offices around the region.

The firm, which employs around 175 staff in the North East, has already set up a number of new sites over the last year, including three, two acre sites in Birtley, Newburn and Stockton, where the 45 staff from Orchard Street have been dispersed.

The new sites bring Dove’s total number of outlets in the region to 15, with plans to add further depots at the North Tyneside coast, which would complement sites in Birtley, Newburn and Hexham, to complete a full circle of sites around Newcastle.

The surrender of the lease from JT Dove at the Orchard Street site will enable developer Silverlink Holdings to carry out important archaeological work in the listed buildings which Dove occupied.

The site, which originally housed the shed in which Robert Stephenson built the world-famous Rocket locomotive, will eventually make way for a £250m redevelopment programme, which will include leisure complexes and housing developments as well as seven new buildings up to 10 storeys high.