News

Owens Road Services says its expansion to a Port Talbot site is essential for its long-term survival. The Welsh haulier has signed a 15-year lease on a 13,000m2 warehouse at Baglan Energy Park and is in talks with a large international company about storage plans. Compliance manager Les Watts says the contract should come to fruition in October, creating 200 jobs. He adds that a lack of work in the Llanelli  area around its current site in Dafen has forced the company to invest in the old Panasonic factory at Port Talbot.

According to commercial property company LSH, the initial average rent is £2.50/ft2 rising to £4.00 and £4.50 in the fifth and 10th year, producing an average rent of £3.67/ft2. LSH director Jason Thorne says: "[Owens] will be able to offer its clients a highly secure, highly visible storage facility along the M4 corridor." Watts says: "It's never been any secret, with business as it is, that we have to keep moving east. There's nothing to move in this part of the world. We have to keep moving because nothing is being made."

He adds that the Dafen site will remain open with no job losses, but there will be about 200 people laid off at the Corus site in Trostre this Christmas due to uncertainty over its future. The firm has also diversified into running PCVs it holds a licence for 10 vehicles. "It's natural," says Watts. "A lot of people don't see [buses  and haulage] going together, but I do. The infrastructure is the same, so it's all there. We're using guys in-house who already have PCVs. "I want everyone to understand it's still a privately owned Welsh family business it's Mr Owen and his brother. This, in the league we are in, is pretty phenomenal."