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Tesco is capitalising on Teesport's expansion plans and has announced the construction of a 1.2m sq/ft import centre, which will create work for logistics companies supplying the depot. PD Ports says it has reached an agreement with the supermarket that allows it to build on 66 acres of land on the North-East coast, creating 800 jobs in the process. Several hundred of these will be for HGV  drivers.

The agreement has been made less than three months after Teesport was given the go-ahead to start a £330m expansion plan, which will see it become the second largest container terminal in the country. Stiller Group has already begun making plans to exploit the port's additional capacity, by launching its own freight forwarding arm.

The announcement has been widely welcomed by the local authority and business leaders. Redcar & Cleveland borough council leader George Dunning says: "One would hope that a lot of these 800 jobs will go to local people. We need to make sure that our local people have the necessary skills to fill these jobs."

A Tesco's spokeswoman says the increased storage capacity is needed to handle increased levels of imported containerised goods: "Building a storage facility at the port removes the need to move stock from  the port where it is imported, to a storage facility inland," she adds. "As well as reducing the double handling of imported stock, this will help to reduce the road miles that products travel."

The import centre will be built to Tesco's design on brownfield land that is currently undeveloped within PDP's 700 acre Tees Dock estate. David Robinson, PDP group chief executive officer says: "With this agreement now in place, we are hoping to see construction start in July with the first part of the new import centre operational by autumn 2009."