A SHIPPING container business has been granted planning permission for a major new development on the A66 between Teesside and Darlington.

The three-acre site will become the main location for Parsons Containers Group, from where it will operate both of its key services, of container sales, and self-storage under the brand U Hold The Key.

The Sedgefield headquartered firm bought the site on the westbound A66 in 2015, which at the time also included a service station and onsite workshop.

The service station was sold on and reopened, while the workshop was sold to one of the group’s suppliers, Readman Fabrications.

Planning consent is the final piece in the jigsaw for reviving the formerly busy commercial site and a major step forward in Parsons’ long-term business strategy.

Almost immediately, three existing Parsons staff will be based at the new site, but the company anticipates that the headcount there will grow as demand for sales, conversions and maintenance grow.

Ean Parsons, chief executive of the Parsons Containers Group, said: “This is probably the most significant development for the Parsons Containers Group since the original foundation of the company.

"The A66 had already become a key strategic site for us and planning consent will allow us to realise our vision for the location. It will become an important hub within a major road network, crucially making it easy for hauliers to off-load empty containers. Its position will also make it a high profile, easily accessible U Hold The Key site, ideal for customers in the Tees Valley, County Durham and throughout the North-East and North Yorkshire.”

The Parsons Containers Group was founded by Mr Parsons in 2000 and is now one of the UK’s largest multi-discipline shipping container businesses.

All of the group’s divisions have experienced significant growth in recent years and between them, the individual companies operate across multiple sites in the North-East, plus one in Grantham, Lincolnshire.

Operations include shipping container sales and bespoke conversions, as well as container self-storage through the group’s U Hold The Key division.

With an annual turnover of more than £6m, the company is now one of the UK’s leading suppliers of shipping containers and one of the largest self-storage companies, hosting around 1,500 stores on 11 sites.

In 2018, the Parsons Containers Group secured investment of £825,000 to support the expansion of its operations across the UK.

The funding came from Maven Capital Partners, one of the country’s most active private equity houses, through the Finance Durham Fund and the North East Development Capital Fund, which injected £500,000 and £325,000 of capital into the business respectively. Since the investment, Parsons has opened two new sites – on Teesside and near Alnwick – and development of the A66 site represents the next step in delivering the group’s strategic objectives.

Earlier in 2020, Parsons appointed Damien Murphy as managing director to improve the group’s capacity, with Ean Parsons stepping up to the role of chief executive.