Seed maker in major move

BIRD SEED manufacturer Haith's Seeds has invested £3.5m in a move which will see it transfer 35 staff to new premises.

Haith's has been based in Cleethorpes, North Lincolnshire, since it was founded in 1937 by the grandfather of the present owner, David Haith, but is now preparing to move to Grimsby Europarc.

The company has bought a 30,000 sq ft speculative office and production building at the business park, which is being developed by Wykeland Properties.

Haith's originally dealt in seed for pigeon fanciers and for the cage and aviary bird market, but for the last 20 years its products have increasingly been aimed at consumers feeding garden birds.

Growth in this market has fuelled Haith's move to Europarc.

Haith's director Simon King said: “We've always been very successful at mail-order and the emergence of on-line shopping has also helped us grow our business – in particular on the products for garden birds.

“Another thing which has helped us was teaming up with television personality Bill Oddie, who has endorsed our mail order and online range for a number of years.”

Dominic Gibbons, a director of Hull-based Wykeland, said: “Wykeland and our partners Yorkshire Forward are extremely pleased that Haith's Seeds, an indigenous business to Grimsby, has decided to expand their business by moving to Europarc.

“Europarc has always prided itself on its appeal to inward investors to the area but we are even more satisfied when local businesses can grow and develop on the development.”

Wykeland speculatively developed the 30,000 sq ft building using contractor Rok Topcon.

Europarc is a 110-acre business park currently been developed by Wykeland in partnership with Yorkshire Forward.