Aycliffe family firm Stiller Warehousing & Distribution are to create more jobs after celebrating a £15m deal with a major multinational food packaging firm Coveris Rigid UK.
The £3m-a-year deal involves Stiller managing Coveris Rigid’s newly-purchased premises on Drum Industrial Estate in Chester-le-Street.
Stiller, which currently employs 115 people, will also manage distribution for Coveris, a global leader in the manufacture and distribution of packaging solutions and coated film technologies, after it purchased the 264,000 square foot Drum Park, a building stood empty for a number of years.
Once the new facility is fully operational in April, Coveris will distribute around 30 billion units – mainly consisting of food packaging – from the site across the UK every year.
Stiller Managing Director Paul Stiller said: “This is a fantastic deal for the company and we’re absolutely delighted. We have been working with the Coveris team within a very challenging timeframe and are very proud of the work carried out by our team under the leadership of General Manager, Brian Simpson.
“We’re now looking forward to operating alongside Coveris Rigid and helping them to continually improve the logistics solutions over the next five years and beyond.”
Half of the unit will be used for warehousing which will be managed and operated by Stiller, and the other half utilised by Coveris’ manufacturing operations.
They will be producing food packaging products and Stiller will be distributing them from the Chester-le-Street location.
Coveris Rigid Operations Manager Ian Donal said: “We have a very defragmented logistics set-up, with sites split between Scotland, Cramlington and Newton Aycliffe, and for the first time we’ll be able to have everything on one site, saving a lot of money on logistics.
Out of all the tenders we received for this project, Stiller’s was by far the most attractive.”
Paul Stiller added: “We’re now recruiting at all levels, including lorry drivers. Bringing drivers direct from Europe is something we’re doing regularly, as there is a shortage of experienced drivers locally.”
The Aycliffe firm has launched its own training programme to help inexperienced drivers get up to speed, some of whom have been recruited through the armed forces Career Transition Partnership Scheme.
Stiller General Manager Brian Simpson (left) with Ian Donal of Coveris Rigid UK.
