The Bristol Port Company has signalled faith in its long-term prosperity by taking on 10 apprentices so far this year. It is aiming to turn them into the supervisors and managers of the future.
The company, which was visited last week by Mike Penning, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport, is investing £600m in a new deep sea container terminal that will create 500 new jobs at the port and bring the majority of containers closer to their end destinations than any other deep water port.
Chief executive Simon Bird said: "We are also investing £2.5m in a new Avonmouth warehouse – able to store 8,000 tonnes of grain – and a Sennebogen 860M mobile harbour crane. The Sennebogen is a versatile wheeled machine that we will use on different berths discharging or loading up to 10,000-tonne vessels, handling a variety of cargoes from stone to animal feed and road salt. These two investments will further enhance our ability to handle smaller bulk vessels quickly and efficiently."
The Bristol Port Company, which was privatised in 1991, owns 2,600 acres at Avonmouth and employs more than 7,600 people. It had already invested more £450m in the port before embarking on the new deep sea container terminal.
The company, which boasts that it is the only major UK port with North, South, East and West motorway and rail connections, has 1,000 acres of developable land adjacent to the terminal around Severnside distribution.
