Five new factories to create 150 jobs for the East End of Glasgow

 

© Evening Times Originally published: 8/9/2008

by Ross Mckinnon

Five factories earmarked for Glasgow's Easterhouse are to provide up to 150 hi-tech jobs for local people.

Govan-based firm Mayberry Properties Ltd plans to invest £4million in building the units - totalling 25,000 sq ft in size - over the next two years.

The bed manufacturing company has paid Glasgow City Council £225,000 for 1.6 acres of land to construct industrial outlets in Queenslie.

An application for planning permission to build the factories in the business park, near Junction 11 of the M8, is expected to be lodged within the next three months.
 
Initially, 24 jobs will be created when the first factory opens - making mattresses - in summer 2009. Employment for a further 24 people will come with the second unit.

Up to 150 people will be employed across all five outlets, including 22 current employees of Mayberry Properties and 18 posts for disabled people.

Gorbals-born Robert Marshall, director of the firm, which only started trading last year, said: "We will be looking to fill the jobs with people from the Greater Easterhouse area where possible.

"There will have to be re-training because the work will involve operating electronics.

"I'm also keen to include disabled employees because I feel there is an underused workforce there who are just as competent as able-bodied people."

The first factory will produce medical mattresses - expected to retail at £2500 - for people with circulation problems.

Mr Marshall is in talks with the NHS to provide products on prescription for bed-ridden patients who suffer bed sores and other related conditions.

The 65-year-old said: "Bed manufacturing in Glasgow is in severe decline because of cheap imports from abroad.

"But this factory will produce top-end products for the medical market. We calculate the mattress would save the NHS £100 a week by allowing patients to stay at home.

"The mattresses work by changing the pressure point on the body of the person lying on it through electronics - using artificial muscle technology."

A second factory will produce battery systems and it is expected the 18 disabled people will be employed there.

Mayberry Properties has applied for patent rights for the items they plan to produce in the other three factories and did not want to reveal what they would be before the patent is confirmed.

A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said: "This sale of land will not only allow a successful Glasgow company to grow but create up to 150 further jobs in the east of the city - continuing the story of regeneration in the area."