The newest factory on the Futura Park development in east Ipswich has been completed for local company Hubbard Products - just six months after work started.
Work on the 80,000 sq ft factory started last autumn and was handed over to its new occupiers at the end of March. Hubbard Products, part of the Daikin Group, is one of the UK’s leading designers, manufacturers and suppliers of commercial cooling equipment.
The project - a collaboration between Futura Park developers AquiGen and Marbank Construction, Hale Architects and Stace Project Management - was first granted planning consent in April 2020.
The building has been designed to provide modern production and warehouse space, a two-storey office block, 150 car parking spaces for staff and visitors with electric vehicle (EV) charging points and cycle parking.
Paul Isaacs, managing director of AquiGen, said: “The factory is the penultimate site to be developed at Futura Park and we are pleased to welcome Hubbard to the fold.
“We would like to thank Ipswich Borough Council, our professional team and our contractors for their hard work to ensure the new premises be handed over on time and within budget despite the coronavirus restrictions. The new factory will offer Hubbard’s employees a fresh environment in which to work and provide more jobs to the local community.”
Hubbard Products currently employs 170 staff with hopes to expand its workforce by nearly 50% over the next four years.
CEO of Hubbard Products, Ilias Katsoulis, added: “We cannot wait to move into our new home at Futura Park and would like to say a huge thank you to everyone involved in its development.
"Our innovative, new facility will create the perfect environment for further improving efficiency and excellence in the manufacturing of quality commercial and transport refrigeration and cooling equipment for the retail, food manufacturing and hospitality and pharmaceutical industries.
“The factory will generate new value for Hubbard’s ‘blue-chip’ customers as well as the local community, providing advanced products and job opportunities for the next four years and beyond.”
Ipswich council leader, David Ellesmere said: “It has been a pleasure working with AquiGen on this project, which they have managed to complete incredibly quickly. With unemployment continuing to rise because of Covid I’m really pleased we are able to welcome a larger Hubbard Products factory - and the quality manufacturing jobs it will bring – to Ipswich.”
The last site on Futura Park is due to be developed as a new Lidl supermarket to replace the small store at Ravenswood on the opposite side of Nacton Road. The planning application for that developed is expected to be discussed by Ipswich council planners later in the spring.
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