BEC Chief Executive, Michel Pemberton celebrated the new purchase: “We continue to reinvest our profits in our local area, encouraging and enabling regeneration. Snapping up the premises on Joseph Noble Road was a great fit for us as we are keen to expand the range of properties we can offer to provide better accommodation options for ambitious businesses locally.”

“We wanted to create an opportunity to enable developing organisations access to fit-for-purpose modern space,” added BEC Head of Development, Rob Miller. “This, in turn, creates employment and supply chain development for our area – it’s win-win.”

The site will now be refurbished to meet the needs of PaR Systems, a global leader in automated handling systems. Downstairs offices in the space will be converted into workshops for mechanical and electrical assembly and a manipulator re-build workshop. Changes to the site will see the installation of manipulator systems and specialised overhead cranes, which are essential for larger projects such as nuclear crane manufacture and testing.

PaR Systems (PaR) opened a facility at Seascale in 2011 to directly support the remote handling systems it has supplied to Sellafield. The new facility at Lillyhall is part of a long-term investment PaR has committed to in the UK, including support for a variety of customers in the nuclear industry.

John McGibbon, UK Managing Director of PaR Systems commented: “The new facility at Lillyhall is critical to our growth. We needed a new location to continue our expansion in the UK; and working with BEC we have found the right home in West Cumbria. We look forward to sharing more with the community about our growth plan in the coming weeks and months.”