WORK has started on a £10m depot that will bring 150 jobs to a deprived community.

Yearsley Cold Storage and Distribution, which provides cold stores for the food industry, is building a base on the Fox Cover Enterprise Park at Seaham, County Durham.

It aims to win up to £6m of business a year from the region's food manufacturers.

Managing director Harry Yearsley said: "We felt there was a need for a cold storage major player in the North-East.

"We do a lot of distribution in the North-East and want to entice more.

"Manufacturers like to have warehouses as close to their factories as possible to keep costs down, so this was the obvious step."

The group's turnover was £45m last year, with North-East business contributing £4.5m, or ten per cent, to the total. Mr Yearsley was confident that building the depot could more than double this to £10m.

"We aim to raise turnover to £56m next year and would expect £5m or £6m of that to come from Seaham," he said.

After looking at sites in nearby Peterlee and Washington, Wearside, the group chose Seaham because of its good road links to Newcastle and Teesside.

The Fox Cover Enterprise Park is being developed by regional development agency One NorthEast, part of its £30m investment to regenerate the East Durham Coalfield.

Phil Hughes, One NorthEast board member, said: "This significant investment by the Yearsley Group is a very real example of the company's confidence in Seaham and its long-term commitment to the area.

"The Fox Cover Enterprise Park is a superb location for firms who, like Yearsley, want to make use of the excellent road links to export their products to the wider UK and beyond.

"We hope that the construction work alone on this new cold store facility will bring with it jobs, and the local Seaham economy is certain to benefit from Yearsley's growth."

Contractors Russells Construction will deliver the depot in three phases.

The first two stages, due to be completed by the end of next year, will provide space for 9,500 frozen pallets and 1,500 chilled mobile pallets.

It will be operational by June next year, creating 50 jobs.

Phase three will start the following year and will bring total capacity to 33,000 units and see the group take on another 100 workers.