Cramlington firm vows to bounce back from fire

Posted by The Journal on Nov 24, 08 09:33 AM in News

A family-run company whose premises were destroyed by fire last night promised to be back in business soon.

Randstad fire

Successful car parts supplier Randstad Ltd was dealt a huge blow when the fierce blaze gutted its warehouse, sales and office complex on the Nelson Industrial Estate in Cramlington, Northumberland, on Friday.

The fire destroyed about £2m worth of goods in the warehouse and has left the building facing demolition, the company homeless and the future of its 40 employees in limbo.

But yesterday Randstad Ltd chairman Tony Dowd - who founded the business in a shop in Whitley Bay more than 30 years ago - said he hopes it will be up and running again in temporary premises by this time next week. He said the employees' jobs are safe and the ultimate aim is to build a bigger and better HQ for the company on the fire-ravaged site.

Mr Dowd was in Spain when he was informed about the devastating fire and flew back to the North East on Saturday to join his brother Martin, who is managing director, and son Phillip, the sales director, to begin the recovery process.

Yesterday he said: "I was sitting by the side of the pool in Spain when I was told what had happened and obviously was pretty shocked. However, Martin and Phillip are really on the ball and I am so pleased to have them by my side in this.

"We have already made plans for new, temporary premises and are looking at two or three options involving vacant units in Cramlington. We want to get the staff back to work as soon as we can and I anticipate us operating again in a much condensed way by next week.

"The staff are all going to be paid as normal and we are having a meeting tomorrow to decide our plan of action. We are also relying on our suppliers rallying round to help us.

"It will take us until January to be running at 100% because a lot of our product comes from abroad. We are going to have it air-lifted in rather than shipped in and are also relying on our UK suppliers to help us out. I'm pretty sure our current premises are going to have to be demolished but we plan to rebuild on the site, hopefully with bigger premises."

Six fire crews and an aerial ladder platform tackled Friday's blaze which sent flames shooting through the roof and a huge plume of black smoke visible from miles away. Phillip Dowd and two colleagues had used fire extinguishers in an attempt to contain the fire, which started in a shredding machine.

Randstad Ltd is a wholesale company which supplies products such as wiper blades, light bulbs, bumper bars and brake cleaner to the automotive industry.

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