Flatpack furniture specialist moves 100 staff to historic aerospace site
One of the UK’s largest independent importers and wholesalers of flat pack furniture has expanded into an historic Wolverhampton building.
Seconique paid an undisclosed sum for the 450,000 sq ft building off Wobaston Road for its headquarters, warehouse and trade showroom, housing around 100 staff.
The building used to house the Boulton Paul Aircraft company – manufacturers of the World War II Defiant bomber – and to mark this heritage Seconique has renamed the building as Boulton House.
Chartered surveyors Bulleys is now marketing a surplus unit of 60,000 sq ft with a large yard at the site on behalf of Seconique.
Seconique, founded in 1986, has moved from its previous premises in Wednesbury, and expects to recruit more in the next few months as its trading expands.
Helen Barker, managing director of Seconique, said: “After a long period of renting we felt it was time to purchase our own property, and the site at Wobaston road offered the size we required.
“As well as allowing us space to accommodate other business tenants there is also room for us to expand in the future.
“The new site is ideal as we have been able to redevelop the site to suit our specific needs and have created a better working environment for our staff.
“We’ve also been fascinated to be approached by older local people who used to work for Boulton Paul, and they’ve shown us photographs of how the factory used to be which we have had framed and put up around the building.
“We’re pleased to help maintain this heritage by redeveloping the building.”
James Bird, senior associate at Bulleys, said: “The Wobaston Road property is a major acquisition as there are only a limited number of buildings of this size and nature.
“It wasn’t easy to find a building of that size and took a while to achieve the sale, but we have worked closely with Seconique over the past few years and are delighted to have acquired this building for them.
“This site has a tremendous amount of history behind it and we were thrilled to work carefully with Seconique to retain an element of this for the future.”
Bulleys arranged the purchase from Cushman & Wakefield, with Ansons acting for Seconique, and the Allied Irish Bank providing finance.
Bartley Finnegan, senior relationship manager at Allied Irish Bank (GB) in Birmingham, said: “Seconique’s move to their own premises is an exciting stage in the company’s development, and we look forward to seeing how the business grows as they take those growth plans forward.”
