BURBERRY is to invest £50m and ultimately create more than 200 jobs as its moves its manufacturing facilities from Castleford and Cross Hills, near Keighley, to Leeds’ South Bank.
More than 1,000 people are expected to work at the manufacturing and weaving facility at Temple Works after it is completed in 2019.
The luxury brand currently employs 700 people in Castleford, where its trench coats are handmade, and 70 people work at Burberry Mill at Cross Hills weaving the gabardine fabric.
Those workers will be relocated, while the company said it would be “facilitating [the] regeneration for the local communities” of its current factories.
Burberry chief executive officer Christopher Bailey said: “Burberry is a proudly British brand and we are so excited that our plan for a new site in South Bank, Leeds, means that we will continue to produce our most iconic product – the trench coat – in this wonderful part of the country for many years to come.”
The first phase of development will see the site redeveloped while future phases would look to restore and renew the Grade I listed Temple Works building. It is a former flax mill which was built in the 1830s by John Marshall in the Egyptian style.
The South Bank is the subject of huge amounts of investment. The £11m UTC Leeds development is on site, while the Tetley’s Brewery site was bought last month by Vastint for more than £40m with plans for a large scale mixed use scheme.
In Holbeck, where Temple Works is located, the £80m Tower Works scheme is going through the planning process and is scheduled to begin on site in the spring, while work on a £31m Ironworks residential and retail development is expected to begin in February.
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