Andrew Gibson, a northeast entrepreneur who moved to America in 2009, has recently returned to launch a brand-new business venture in Lanchester, Co Durham with assistance from Durham city’s leading law firm, Swinburne Maddison LLP (Swinburne Maddison).
Called Shred Base, the new business provides confidential destruction of sensitive documents – either on-site or off-site – and Mr Gibson anticipates that the business will employ 20 people by the end of its second year.
The confidential destruction sector is a market place which is well known to Mr Gibson who has 30 years of experience, which began in 1991 with the launch of Securi Shred, the first mobile shredding service in the UK. He built up this business to become one of the largest independent security destruction companies in the UK before selling the company to workplace service provider, PHS, in 2004.
Now, after a stint of 10 years in America, Mr Gibson has returned with his family to purchase a five-acre site known as Malton Works, a former industrial site which more recently had been trading as a sawdust processing plant.
The totally secure site, which also has 45,000 sq ft of offices and warehouses, was purchased on behalf of Westerton Holdings Limited, but will trade under the name of Shred Base.
Explaining the background to his decision to return to the UK, Mr Gibson said that several of his old customers had asked him to re-enter the industry as they felt that it was now dominated by two to three large players and as a result, customer service and pricing could be substantially improved. He said:
“My family were keen to return to the UK and I had always had my eye on this particular site, so when the owner contacted me and offered it for sale, I jumped on the first plane out of Florida to come and do the deal. It is the ideal site with plenty of room for expansion and it is in an excellent location enabling us to cover the whole of the North East.
“I contacted Swinburne Maddison because I have known Simon Robinson for many years, and I could not have received a better service – I have been very impressed by the firm’s rapid response and efficiency in completing the transaction so swiftly for me. I look forward to working with the team again in the future.”
Commenting on the site acquisition, partner and head of conveyancing, Kate Stephenson, added:
“We were delighted to hear from Andrew when he returned to the UK and with his newly acquired site now geared up for operations, we look forward to watching the growth of his business from the side lines and hope that this first transaction is one of many such in the future once the company begins to thrive and develop. We extend our warmest wishes to him for the future success of Shred Base.”
Mr Gibson added: “We already have six employees, two from the former company, and I am confident that by the end of our second year in business, this number will have grown to around 20.
“We had a great experience last time around and this time we will build on our solid experience and enjoy the journey that we are once again taking in the security destruction industry.”
Roby Peat of George F White, acted for the site vendor.
