Wine merchant unveils HQ plan

The company is moving from its premises on York Street, Hull, to a new building at Meltonwest Business Park, on the A63, nine miles west of Hull city centre.

The 27,000 sq ft building will house the company's head office, a warehouse and Cellar Door shop. The opening of the shop will create five new jobs to add to the existing workforce of 50.

Chefs and drinks experts will also host courses at a wine school and cookery theatre.

Wykeland Group is developing the new headquarters as part of its 50-acre Meltonwest Business Park, which is already home to Heron Foods and Paragon. House of Townend is due to move in February 2011.

Managing director John Townend, the fourth generation of his family to take the helm since the business was founded in 1906, said: "This is the single biggest investment in the company's history.

"For more than 100 years, we have dedicated ourselves to bringing the world's finest wines to our private and commercial clients. Now we will be able to maintain that same time-honoured level of family service from our new home, custom-built to the highest specifications."

House of Townend supplies hotels and restaurants across the Midlands and the North, including The Drunken Duck, in Ambleside, and the Yorke Arms, Ramsgill, near Harrogate.

The company also manages wine portfolios for more than 300 private clients and supplies direct to hundreds more individual customers.

North Lincolnshire-based Havercroft Construction won the contract to build the new facility.