Bed store's jobs boost
New jobs are being created in Wednesbury as bed company Dreams expands its business in Sandwell.
It has taken over 50,000 sq ft of an empty Wednesbury factory where it is making beds, extending its existing operation at the Granada Trading Estate in Oldbury.
It has announced plans to take on even more staff at the factory in Woden Road West, Wednesbury.
The site was empty after Huntleigh Healthcare moved jobs to Poland last year.
Dreams makes mattresses at an 84,000 sq ft factory on the Granada Trading Estate. The site, opened two years ago, employs 109.
It has its national distribution centre at Hallens Drive, Wednesbury – also site of its national superstore – with 50 staff.
Production in 2007 doubled to 5,000 mattresses and divans weekly.
Dreams bosses say they want more staff to work at the Wednesbury bed factory, as plans to open 35 stores nationally get under way. The expansion will create 200 new jobs across the UK.
Bosses could not say exactly how many positions will be available at the new Wednesbury site, where it will operate for five months, after which landlords Kingswinford-based London Cambridge Properties plan to overhaul the site.
Daniel Clancy, of Dreams' property division, said: "Dreams occupy part of the building but it is for the short term. I believe the owners are looking to develop the land."
Bosses are tightlipped on what will happen after the five months end. Up to 300 jobs went as Huntleigh Healthcare, makers of hospital beds and hoists, left.
The firm, with branches worldwide, was on the site for 75 years but stopped production last July and moved to Poland. It left 30 staff in a smaller Trident Drive office.
Dreams sales rose 27 per cent to just under £200 million and net profits rose 88 per cent to £13.3m in 2007.
