Demolition of disused buildings is under way at the headquarters of mail order company Freeman Grattan Holdings in Ingleby Road, Great Horton.

The buildings, a mixture of vacant warehouses and office space, have stood empty for some time with the business’s main warehousing operations now based nearby at Listerhills.

Neil Moore, the company’s financial director, said work to tidy up the site had been going on for a number of months.

Under the direction of Dutch-born boss Koert Tulleners, whose brief is to turn round the loss-making mail retail firm where 1,000 jobs have been lost in the past two years, FGH is re-evaluating the need for space.

The Ingleby Road site, which includes the Grattan, Freemans and Kaleidoscope shopping catalogues, has been home to the business since the 1930s. Mr Tulleners has pledged that the FGH business would retain its base in Bradford, but would need a smaller site to cater for a slimmer business.

Grattan was founded in 1912 in Manchester Road by Enrico Fattorini. At its peak the firm employed about 5,000 people.

Since 1991 it has been part of the German family-run Otto Group.