Timber firm to create 100 jobs

More than 100 extra jobs could be created by an outdoor timber product company near Kidderminster which is bucking the trend of many companies during the credit crunch.

Forest Garden Ltd, at Hartlebury, near Kidderminster, has announced it is to spend £2.5 million to expand its operations locally.

The firm, which supplies garden centres, builders merchants and do-it-yourself outlets with garden buildings, fencing and decking, plans to increase manufacture and storage at its Hartlebury headquarters in a move that will create more than 100 extra jobs.

However, the company's Eardisley site in Herefordshire will cease operations on December 5. It is believed the workers will be given the chance to move to the revamped site.

Jonathan Halford, chief executive officer of Forest, which also has sites at Sennybridge and Lockerbie, said: "Over the last 12 months the Forest Garden Group has continued to build on the positive progress made since the management buyout in 2006."

He said the closure of operations at Eardisley would ensure a "smooth and effective transition of the Forest Garden business into the modernised and expanded Hartlebury facilities during the next three months".