North Somerset-based AP Burt, one of the UK’s biggest paper bag manufacturers, is predicting growth after moving premises for the first time in 80 years.
The firm has relocated to a 52,000 sq ft property at First Avenue, Portbury, leaving the factory in Harbour Road, Portishead, where it first set up in 1934.
The move secures the jobs of all 65 employees and puts the firm in a strong position for growth. 
The firm supplies seven million bags a day – more than a third of a billion a year – to some of Britain’s biggest supermarkets and fast food retailers, including Greggs, KFC, Waitrose and Morrisons.
In recent years it has benefited from growth in ‘food-to-go’ packaging and the move away from plastic bags.
AP Burt has sold the 10-acre Harbour Road site to Taylor Wimpey, having gained planning consent for residential development on six acres and employment use on four.
Managing director James Nicholls said: “After 80 years at Harbour Road we considered it the correct time to undertake a relocation and a redevelopment of the existing site.” 
Bristol commercial property agency Williams Gunter Hardwick handled the sale of the existing site and the relocation.
Director Malcolm Gunter said: “The timing of the decision to relocate coincided with an upturn in market conditions – particularly for the residential sector – and this clearly worked in our favour.
“However the chronic shortage of available warehouse and production accommodation within North Somerset, and indeed wider area, did not make the task of identifying a suitable relocation property particularly straightforward.
“We’re therefore delighted that James and his colleagues have been able to complete their move and remain a significant North Somerset employer.”
