Developer Wykeland Group has applied to North East Lincolnshire Council for planning consent for a building at Wykeland’s Europarc business park in Grimsby, to enable a major expansion by leading food products supply chain business HSH Coldstores.

The planning application is for a temperature-controlled storage facility, three-storey offices and a refrigeration plant room, altogether adding up to 171,000 sq ft of floorspace. The plans also include an 80-space car park, with electric charging points, as well as room for bicycles and motorcycles, on a 12-acre site.

Family-run HSH Coldstores, which has three existing sites in the town and another in the West Midlands, provides supply chain services for frozen, chilled and ambient food products, offering cold storage, transport or both.

Driven by growing customer demand, it is planning to expand its business by investing in the new building, which will accommodate HSH’s fleet of large goods vehicles, with 28 dock doors for loading and unloading goods.

HSH Coldstores has more than 130 staff at its existing sites and in driving roles. New jobs created by the development at Europarc would include multi-skilled coldstore operatives, stock office administrators and large goods vehicle drivers.

Anthony Howard, managing director of HSH Coldstores, said: “This expansion is needed due to increasing demand for storage from existing and potential new customers.

“I’m extremely excited that we’re growing and Europarc is the perfect location, with its fantastic road links and other food–based businesses on site, for this exciting new facility.”

He added: “It’s fantastic we’re in a position to expand in the current climate.”