A Lancashire business has secured a new base after a fire devastated one of its manufacturing units in the summer.
Disaster struck CoolKit, which converts vans into temperature-controlled vehicles, when firefighters battled an uncontrollable blaze at its site in Burnley Groups of employees .
After founder and chief executive Rupert Gatty issued an urgent appeal for a new premises, the company agreed to take 75,000 sq ft of space in Blackburn.
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CoolKit has already started to move some of its operations to this site, with the plan to have the entire business relocated by the start of 2024.
Mr Gatty said: "We are sorry to be leaving Burnley but the opportunity to move onto such a large site, which is only 300 metres from Junction 6 of the M65, was just too good to miss. The layout is perfect for our future strategy."
Coolkit increased its turnover from £17.6m to £20.1m in the year to the end of June and said it still expects to report record figures for its current financial period.
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All of the present workforce of 100-plus will be transferred over the next few months to the new premises.
A recruitment drive to boost the staffing by 20% was put on hold following the fire but is expected to be relaunched in the coming weeks.
The CEO added: "Another benefit of the new site is that it opens up our travel-to-work catchment area for both production and administration staff. We don’t want to lose any of our present staff. They have responded tremendously to the challenge of keeping up the production in recent weeks despite the disaster.
"Only a few months ago we hadn’t a clue what was going to happen to the business. But within a few days, thanks to MD, Daniel Miller and the rest of our executive team implementing a swift and robust recovery plan, and our admin and manufacturing teams executing it with lots of energy and drive, we are now moving into a very exciting future for CoolKit.
"We would also like to extend our thanks to estate agents, Taylor Weaver and our new landlord, Carolis for their efforts and support in finding, letting us view and securing the site so quickly."