CONSTRUCTION work has started to create four new industrial units as part of the latest expansion at Thorp Arch Estate.

The new units, being built for estate owner Rockspring Hanover Property Unit Trust, will extend the existing Ash Way development and will be ready for occupation at the end of January next year.

The £3 million build will total 48,000 sq ft, including a fifth unit of 15,000 sq ft which has been pre-let to wholesale confectionery business, Bon Bon’s, founded in 2007 by general manager Mark Rowntree, great grandson of confectionery entrepreneur and social reformer, Joseph Rowntree. Bon Bon’s first moved to Unit 1 Ash Way in 2014.

Of the remaining units, two will be 6,000sq ft, one will be 9,000sq ft and another 12,000sq ft.

Tim Munns, director of Wharfedale Property Management, which manages Thorp Arch Estate, between York and Wetherby, said: “There is a considerable demand from businesses wishing to come here and the new Ash Way units will help meet this need.

“The development is equidistant between Leeds, York and Harrogate. We are already receiving interest from potential occupiers who are impressed that the fibre is being installed as part of the build.

“Bon Bon’s is a top-class national business with an important link to Yorkshire’s confectionery history and we are delighted that the company has agreed to become the first tenant in this exciting new development.”

Mark Rowntree, who’s businesses will be moving into the new unitin December, said: “We are probably the UK’s largest hand-packing confectionery business and the additional space will allow us to re-organise our operation to provide more packing capacity in our existing unit and to use the new premises entirely as a bulk holding and dispatch warehouse.”

Construction of the latest phase of Ash Way is being managed by York-based the LHL Group, and built by York-based Lindum Group Ltd.