Expanding business park opens new chapter for educational supplier

Browns Books, an educational supplier, is relocating to developer Wykeland Group’s Melton West business park.

The business, which supplies libraries, schools, colleges and universities across the UK and abroad, is moving to a purpose-built head office and distribution centre.

It has outgrown its current premises in Hull city centre and is investing in a freehold three-acre site at Melton West, East Yorkshire.

Construction is well advanced, with the Browns Books team expected to be operating from their new home by June.

The two-storey, 44,000 sq ft building provides the space and facilities needed to support the company’s continued growth, as well as immediate access to the A63 and onward to the national motorway network for distribution.

The site has parking for 120 cars and room for further expansion.

Browns Books is a supplier of books, ebooks and DVDs to libraries and educational establishments.

It applies coverings and labels to orders on site to support library management; has its own “VleBooks” ebook platform with more than 1.4m titles; provides IT integrations with library software; and has a UK-wide sales team.

The company’s current building in George Street, Hull city centre, has been its home for 40 years and is where the vast majority of the company’s staff of more than 80 are based. The property is now up for sale.

Browns Books is best known by many local people for its independent book shop, which traded for decades from the George Street site.

The shop closed in 2008 as the company focused on its growing library and educational supply business along with its online ordering website.

Yvette Stafford, owner and managing director of Browns Books, said: “I’m sure there will be a few tears when we leave, but we’ve simply outgrown the building.

“This is a very exciting and much-needed investment and we’re delighted to have found the right location locally only a few miles from our home of so many years.

“All our locally-based staff are moving with us to our new site, which will allow us to handle more books and open up opportunities to create more jobs locally.”

Her daughter, Ashley Stafford, who is the commercial director and is project managing the move, said: “We’re excited to be moving to a fit-for-purpose building in an excellent location, which has great accessibility for deliveries and despatches that will allow us to grow and take on larger contracts as they become available.

“We’re also planning to have a showroom at the front of the building for visiting librarians, which could also potentially be open to the public.

“This move will provide the business with the capacity and location we need to continue to grow and our staff with the high-quality, purpose-designed facilities they deserve.”

Browns Books is the latest business to invest at the 200-acre Melton West business park.

To date Hull-based Wykeland Group has developed almost 800,000 sq ft of office, warehouse, distribution and manufacturing space at Melton West, with businesses on site including Heron Foods, generator manufacturer Allam Marine and shower maker Kohler Mira.

As well as the Browns Books building, construction is under way on an 110,000 sq ft command and control centre for Humberside Police, which will also complete in 2021.

Wykeland property director, David Donkin, said: “We’re delighted to be working with Browns Books to develop a new head office and distribution centre which will provide a platform for further growth and secure the position of the business as a sector leader.

“We’re both locally owned and managed businesses that are passionately committed to local employment and supporting the growth of the region’s economy, so this is an ideal partnership.

“Many of the other businesses at Melton West are locally owned and have invested on site to ensure their competitiveness and accelerate their growth.”

Hessle-based PDR Construction is the main contractor for the scheme.

PDR managing director, Paul Dransfield, said: “Everyone who has grown up in Hull knows Browns Books and we’re really appreciative of being entrusted with building their new head office at Melton West.”

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