O’Connor Kennedy Turtle (OKT) and Knight Frank (KF) property consultants and Chartered Surveyors confirm the sale of a major industrial facility in Ballymena.
Leading property experts OKT and KF, acting on behalf of Japan Tobacco International (JTI), confirm the sale of the Gallaher Factory in Galgorm on the outskirts of Ballymena.
The manufacturing facility which extends to over 850,000 sq ft of manufacturing, office and storage buildings on a site of some 100 acres was sold in one lot to Wright Bus and will be used for the expansion of their successful bus building business in Ballymena.
The sale, which represents one of the largest industrial land and property deals ever in Northern Ireland, was concluded jointly by Mark Patterson of OKT and Charles Binks of KF.
Commenting on the deal Mark Patterson confirmed that JTI were delighted that the factory would continue to be used for manufacturing purposes for many years to come by the Wright Group.
Commenting on the announcement, Wright Group Chairman and CEO Mark Nodder OBE said; “Our current operations in Galgorm have become somewhat ‘landlocked’ in recent years, as substantial growth across the various parts of our business has progressively taken up all the land that we owned. The imminent closure of the JTI facility has presented us with an opportunity to secure a substantial site, which will give us the additional space and operational flexibility we require to ensure that our future growth and development plans are not hampered by real estate constraints”.
Steven Francey, Wright Group MO explained “It is too early to outline specific plans for the Lisnafillan facility. However, securing the site for future use will allow us to look at a range of options, which could potentially include Advanced Engineering and R&D facilities that will help keep our products at the leading edge of, what is, a fast changing public transportation industry. We would naturally hope that in the medium to long term our investment will create additional employment opportunities within a number of our business areas”.
Wrighs Group, who will this year celebrate a Seventieth Anniversary of Robert Wright Coachworks setting up in business, has a long association with the town of Ballymena. This latest major investment is set to further strengthen the company’s ties with the locality.
Welcoming the purchase, JTI UK’s Engineering Director Greg McKinley said; “Since the announcement of our factory closure, we have been exploring all opportunities to find a suitable buyer for our factory site. We are very pleased that Wright Group has agreed to purchase the site and we look forward to working closely with them to complete the sale by mid–2017”.
