Ashers purchase Newtownabbey Central Services depot

It follows the sale of Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council’s central services depot at Ballyearl to the firm.

Confirming the sale, Daniel McArthur, general manager of Ashers said: “We will be planning to construct a state of the art food production facility at the old council depot that will allow us to further expand our production and to particularly target the export markets of Ireland and UK mainland.

“We will be retaining our current Ballyearl premises as a cafe and also for any storage overflow required in the future.

“It is our plan to expand and create further jobs as part of the new site.

“We hope to be operational at the new site by autumn 2021.”

The development, according to council minutes surrounding the bid process, will see the creation of 45 new jobs during construction, 47 once operaational and the retention of the existing staff numbers across the borough.

Elected members discussed the sale behind closed doors at the full monthly meeting on September 28.

In October 2019 members agreed to proceed to test the market for disposal of the Central Services Depot on the Doagh Road via initial expressions of interest.

The property was marketed for six weeks and 14 expressions of interest were received.

The second stage of the process asked interested bidders to complete a detailed development proposal with a closing date of August 19. Nine formal proposals to purchase the site were received.

The redacted minutes, posted on the council website, state: “Ashers Baking Company Limited achieved the highest score at assessment of 97/100 and submitted a bid.

“The depot site lies adjacent to the site for the new crematorium development which is zoned as employment land and extends to 13.6 acres.

“A review of the land required for the crematorium has indicated that it will be possible to release part of this site for sale without impacting on the overall scheme. The area of land is approximately 2.4 acres.

“The land is separated from the depot site by a small watercourse on the east side and it was anticipated that access to this additional land would be via the depot site.

“It was therefore proposed that OKT be instructed to offer this land for sale to Ashers Baking Company Limited.”

Ald Mark Cosgrove proposed the council accepted the bid offered by Ashers and the additional land be offered for sale to the bakery.

This was seconded by Ald Mandy Girvan.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the local authority said: “Through the council’s appointed property agent, a number of expressions of interest were sought for the purchase of the Central Services Depot on the Doagh Road.

“Following the assessment process, the council agreed to accept a bid for the sale of the site.

“As the sale of the depot is subject to contract, details of the financial agreements are commercially sensitive and cannot be released at this time.

“As planned, staff and vehicles based at the site will relocate to other council facilities based on the needs of the services.”

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