TWELVE jobs are coming to Port Glasgow after regeneration chiefs lured a top Scottish company to the town’s new £4.2m business park, the Tele can exclusively reveal.

Riverside Inverclyde (RI) are set to welcome retail and hotel fit-out firm Union Projects as the first tenant at Kelburn Business Park.

The company will make the Port site its new HQ, relocating from Paisley.

Union Projects is an industry leader in fitting out convenience stores, hotels and other retail outlets and has recently worked with big names like Co-op, Motel One and Aberdeen Asset Management.

The announcement of their arrival at Kelburn comes as work nears completion on the last of the four industrial units.

Gerry McCarthy, RI chairman, says it is a milestone moment for the project.

He told the Tele: “We welcome Union Projects not only to our new high quality units but also to Inverclyde.

“It’s important for Inverclyde to have the facilities in place to attract a diversity of companies into the area.

“We are working hard to ensure that Union Projects will be the first of a number of companies relocating or expanding into these facilities over the coming months.” The four blocks offer accommodation varying from 1,100 square feet to 15,500 sq ft. Union Projects will have office space and storage areas from where its design and installation solutions team will operate.

To add to the attraction and flexibility of the new units at Kelburn, RI will also fit-out two of the blocks.

Francis Blyth is the company’s commercial director and also lives in Inverclyde.

He is thrilled to become first tenant at the business park.

Francis said: “Union and our associated sister companies operate within a fiercely competitive market across the UK.

“As a relatively new business, we had to ensure that we set up our HQ within a development which reflects our high-end reputation for quality amongst our client base.

“As a lifelong resident of Inverclyde, I felt Kelburn offered us all the benefits we were looking for, such as maintaining convenient links to the M8 and securing a high-end building in keeping with our brand, while avoiding the high costs and inefficiencies of working within a busy town centre, which we were experiencing within our previous location in Paisley.” Union Projects works within the construction and refurbishment market throughout the UK, with its projects ranging from London to Aberdeen.

Aubrey Fawcett, RI chief executive, said: “Riverside Inverclyde’s strategy of creating quality business premises continues to pay off.

“Our aspirations for Kelburn are more ambitious than providing storage or transport maintenance space, as we can already offer such facilities elsewhere in our property portfolio.

“Riverside Business Park in Greenock has been a huge success for us with office-based companies, and we’re looking for Kelburn Business Park to be as successful in the industrial sector.

“The Kelburn units have been created with the specific aim of creating economic growth in Inverclyde by supporting jobs.”