STRENGTH and conditioning equipment maker Blk Box is expanding to a new 140,000 sq ft manufacturing and distribution centre in Newtownabbey in a £1 million investment.
It comes after it announced 16 additional jobs and a £2 million investment in November in laser cutting equipment and a state-of-the-art paint line.
And as part of its significant growth, the company, founded eight years ago by Greg Bradley, will relocate from its current headquarters at Belfast's Titanic Quarter to the new facility at Monkstown industrial estate.
Blk Box (www.blkboxfitness.com) specialises in the design and fit-out of world class training facilities for customers, brands and sports teams including Adidas, PureGym, Irish Rugby, Arsenal FC and Kerry GAA.
In the past year it has experienced significant demand from elite performance athletes and teams, as well as a significant increase in e-commerce sales for the home gym market.
Greg Bradley said: “Titanic Quarter has been a fantastic base and will always be part of our DNA. But in order to continue to grow, we need more space, and that capacity simply isn’t available at our current location.
“Monkstown will provide us with the space we need to grow now and into the future. It will also enable us to create the kind of distribution centre we need to fill our growing consumer sales in the UK, Europe and further afield.
“It will also help Blk Box continue to be a great place to work as we invest in creating a facility that our team can be proud of and where they can continue to deliver world class work,” he added.
Lisa McAteer, director at CBRE NI, which acted on behalf of Blk Box in negotiating the deal on the new lease,
said: “We are thrilled to have helped facilitate this extremely exciting phase of expansion as the business up-scales
“There has been increased competition for industrial and logistics units in Northern Ireland over the last year due to Covid-19 and the surge in online retailing, which has led to a demand for manufacturing, storage and distribution space, and securing a new lease for warehouse space will support Blk Box in its ambitious plans for continued business growth and investment.”
