Welsh economy minister welcomes ground-breaking new business park

A ground-breaking business park built entirely from shipping containers has been launched on Deeside.

North Wales-based storage giant Lock Stock have already welcomed their first customers at the Interlinq site in Sandycroft.

There are more than 50 storage units available on the 2.3-acre location with room for 250 as it fills up and plans for them to be augmented with eight upper-storey office units so that businesses can run their entire operation from there.

Lock Stock Operations Manager Stuart Bowker has overseen the construction of the new storage park, the 20^th opened by the company across North and Mid Wales and the border counties.

He said: “This is an ideal site in a growth area for us with our sites in Saltney, Mold and Flint and it is perfectly suited to businesses as it’s so close to the A55 with links to the motorway system and the rest of North Wales.

“We are already getting plenty of interest from the business community and have already taken on our first customer with more to follow.

“Our units are very versatile and they are secure while our sites are carefully planned using computer technology with a 24-hour electrically-operated entrance gate so they can be accessed at all times.

“With a booming housing market we are also getting plenty of enquiries from people looking to store furniture and possessions as they look to move home or possibly downsize.”

Lock Stock have also given themselves the option of making the Interlinq North Wales’s first containerised business park, based on London’s Containerville, the site in the East End with over 40 business premises in three storeys of stacked storage units alongside Regent’s Canal.

The site, on Ffordd Pentre, just off Chester Road East, has planning permission for eight office spaces on the second floor of a two-storey construction with the upper-level units converted into 1280 square foot office spaces, fully insulated and fitted with air-source heating systems.

There’s the potential for additional power to be supplied by solar panels fitted to other units on the site to create comfortable, modern workspaces that are ideal for businesses with high-speed internet and storage space on hand.

The storage units, painted in Lock Stock’s distinctive dark green livery, are on hard standing with surface water drainage and sewerage systems and ducting for electrical and communications connections.

They are all eight foot high by eight foot wide but come in 10, 20 and 40 foot lengths with storage capacities ranging from 640 cubic feet to 2,560 cubic feet.

Stuart Bowker added: “Increasingly we are seeing businesses, especially small businesses using our sites because there are no business rates or service charges and with three different sizes of units they’re ideal whether people are looking to grow or to downsize.

“Businesses can easily operate from a storage unit, calling there to stock up in the morning before going out to jobs and that is one reason we plan our sites very carefully so that our customers can easily access their units 24/7.

“We respond to demand and where it is coming from and if it is from somewhere where we need more capacity then we look at extending our existing premises or opening new sites and happily that has been possible here.”

Ken Skates, the Welsh Government Minister for the Economy and North Wales, said: “Lock Stock’s plans for the site could include offering small businesses and start-ups a proper office base as well as flexible storage options.

“The facilities could provide embryo businesses with a low cost introduction, helping them to grow and prosper, with a view to offering future employment opportunities.

“I look forward to seeing the site develop over the coming years.”

The new Interlinq site will be added to Lock Stock’s existing 3,000-plus units at storage parks at Holyhead, Caernarfon, Bangor, Llandudno Junction and Rhyl on the North Wales Coast, on the Dee at Flint, Sandycroft and Saltney, and inland at the Colomendy Industrial Estate in Denbigh, Mold, Wrexham and Newtown in Powys, and at Oswestry and Shrewsbury in Shropshire.

The company also specialise in the off-site hire of containers which can be delivered by their specialist lorry and for further information about Lock Stock Self Storage contact them on 0808 100 1292 or go to https://lockstock.biz/

Open for business – the new Lock Stock Self Storage Interlinq site has just opened at Sandycroft, pictured are :Lock Stock Operations Manager Stuart Bowker and Site Manager Mike Trow.

(Pictures by Mandy Jones Photography)