As many as 100 new jobs could be created at Forest Garden‘s manufacturing facility near Lockerbie over the next two years, it was announced during a visit to the Steven’s Croft site by Scottish Enterprise minister Iain Gray.
Speaking later to TTJ, Forest Garden’s managing director Michael Timmis confirmed that the current workforce of around 120 could grow to 220 by the summer of 2004 “because of the way we see manufacturing developing at the site”.
The company started up its sawmill at Steven’s Croft in January last year and subsequently added a distribution centre and a facility for manufacturing, among other products, fencing, trellis and garden buildings. Forest Garden is using its Lockerbie base to service customers in Scotland and the north of England.
Mr Timmis noted that his company was also planning to start up a new pressure treatment plant on the site in October this year. Projected annual capacity of 50,000m3 would be “more than enough to cope with our internal requirements” and thus Forest Garden would also be looking to treat other companies’ timber, he explained.
It was also confirmed during the minister’s visit to Stephen’s Croft that another of the site’s resident companies – AW Jenkinson Forest Products – could also take on up to 30 new employees over the next two years on the back of projected growth at Forest Garden. As a haulier of Forest Garden residues, any increase in this major customer’s tonnages would place increased wagon and driver requirements on Jenkinsons, the company stated.
