BUILDING work on a new £300,000 distribution centre for Wetherby Stone Products Ltd has been started by Severfield-Reeve Projects (SRP).

Thirsk-based builders SRP has designed and obtained planning permission for the new 10,000 sq ft centre at Dalton Airfield Industrial Estate, near Thirsk, which will be completed by the end of the year.

The new distribution centre, which will be fitted with a bespoke pallet-racking system, will replace Wetherby Stone Products' three separate warehouses on two sites.

It will allow the company to centralise and streamline its distribution and maximise stock levels in line with customers' needs.

The centre is being built next to the new headquarters and manufacturing base of Wetherby Stone Products Ltd, which was founded in the town in the 1970s and makes a range of cement-based products, such as tile adhesives, masonry coatings and renders.

Wetherby Stone Products, which is owned by the Chalmers family, employs 50 staff and operates nationally and into the Irish Republic supplying several multi-national, household-name DIY and trade retailers.

It initially moved its manufacturing from Wetherby to Ripon in 1990 and has invested £1.5million in the relocation during the last 18 months.

The distribution centre will complete the company's move to Dalton Airfield Industrial Estate which has been developed over the last 25 years and is home to dozens of manufacturing and distribution businesses.

SRP managing director, Lindsay Ross, said: "SRP, in association with Hambleton District Council, has been a major driver of Dalton Airfield Industrial Estate over the last 25 years and we are delighted to help Wetherby Stone Products Ltd relocate here."

Updated: 10:41 Tuesday, November 15, 2005