300 jobs to be created as Wren Kitchens opens huge quartz worktop plant

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Up to 300 more new jobs are to be created by Wren Kitchens in Scunthorpe as it opens a further manufacturing base in the town.

Europe’s largest quartz worktop processing centre is being established, vastly enhancing existing production at the Barton headquarters as it caters for unprecedented demand.

The former DHL facility on Foxhills Industrial Estate has been transformed, with initial stone fabrication now underway.

Read more: Den Hartogh Logistics makes major investment into northern port activity

Hi-tech computerised machinery has been imported from around the globe, with full capacity anticipated by December and recruitment ongoing throughout the year.

It is being developed alongside further manufacturing expansion at Barton, with the £120 million addition there due to open in early 2022. That will create 900 new roles across a one million square foot site.

Wren Kitchens’ UK manufacturing operations director, Kes Serelis, said: “We’ve reinvested back into our business to create this new state-of-the-art facility which is required to cope with our increased demand of fabricating high-quality quartz worktops for our customers across the UK.

“It will create a significant number of manufacturing and support roles for the region such as machine operators, team leaders, compliance officers and managers.

“It will be the largest quartz fabrication site in Europe, and we will be utilising the most sophisticated machinery in the industry such as robotic CNC saws.”

The addition was first revealed in the publication of Wren’s annual results in June, when turnover topped £700 million.

Now full details have been given, with a specialist quartz storage facility also developed at Barton, with five new quartz delivery depots strategically located across the UK in Gateshead, Watford, Thurrock, Basingstoke and Exeter.

Wren has its own bespoke double-decker lorries with A-frames to secure the stone during transit.

Wren, launched in East Yorkshire by former Hygena boss Malcolm Healey in 2009, now has four manufacturing sites in the Humber region, with more than 100 retail showrooms.

It has also ventured across the Atlantic as it aims to mirror a phenomenal decade of growth over in the US, with manufacturing and retail all established Stateside too.

More than 5,500 people are already employed, with Wren now the largest employer in the Humber.