PLANS to create around 40 new jobs in Renfrewshire by building an extension at a Johnstone plumbing suppliers have been unveiled.
McAlpine Plumbing is expanding the factory space at its Floors Street site after buying neighbouring land from WRC Recycling several years ago.
Project manager Alan Agnew said construction is going ahead following the firm’s recovery from the impact of the Covid pandemic.
He said: “The plans for the expansion were drawn up before the outbreak of Covid, which hit us quite badly.
“Unfortunately, we had to make redundancies last year but our order book has recovered brilliantly.
“We’ve renovated the existing buildings for warehouse facilities and been able to give our employees a car park. Now we’re building this extension to the main factory to give us more production space.”
The Johnstone site’s newest employee, Agnieszka Barszczewska, took part in a groundbreaking ceremony on Monday to mark the start of the six-month construction project, being carried out by Bell Building Projects.
The 11,000 square foot extension will provide a modern and efficient product assembly, packaging and despatch area, together with a new factory entrance, reception, training room, offices and welfare facilities.
Mr Agnew said: “Before, the site was quite cramped and wasn’t a very efficient layout, so the extension not only gives us additional floorspace but allows us to reorganise the whole factory from one end to the other.
“The build programme is for six months but we are recruiting employees at the moment, as we want to get as many people in and trained as possible so that, when we do have the extra space, we can populate it immediately and get production ramped up.
“Some of the new roles will be engineering and office staff but mostly we are looking for factory operatives, who carry out the assembling and warehousing activities.”
Mr Agnew said he hopes the recruitment drive will help bring “prosperity” to Johnstone.
He added: “The vast majority of our current employees are local and we hope that continues. It keeps the factory busy here and we hope it’s our way of giving back to the community.”
For more information or to apply for a role, call 01505 321669.
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