A TECH company will continue its multi million pound expansion in Shipley by converting an empty council building into manufacturing and office space.

Earlier this year Univer Manufacturing Company, part of the British-owned, TecnAir Group, completed the £2.4 million transformation of a disused former Bradford Council building in Shipley into a state-of-art manufacturing facility.

Now the company is in the process of purchasing a neighbouring building, the former adoption and fostering offices on Saltaire Road, and has been granted planning permission to further expand into the 4,000 square metre property.

The company says the expansion will create 30 new jobs and see 50 staff move from its current base on Station Road, Bradford.

The building is on the outskirts of Saltaire, and Bradford Council says the investment will not only create jobs, but improve the image of one of the main routes into the World Heritage Site.

Univer develops and manufactures pneumatic and hydraulic automated components across robotics, electronics, medical and bio-sciences sectors for businesses like as 3M, BOC, Ford, O2 and Parker.

Established in 1988, it has grown to become the largest independently owned specialist pneumatic manufacturing business in the UK, with production facilities in Europe and other parts of the world, including Australia and China.

They said their move to the refurbished building in Shipley had helped it secure a number of new contracts.

Plans to convert the neighbouring offices, including the re-cladding of the building, have been approved, and work is due to start in the coming weeks.

The building is on the main route between Shipley and Saltaire, and Bradford Council planning officers described the vacant offices as a “dated, concrete sectional building with little architectural interest.”

Approving the plans, they added: “The proposed development represents a sensitive treatment of a prominently sited building along a major traffic route.

“The resulting building represents a significant visual improvement over the existing built form and should set a positive precedent for future developments along this stretch of Saltaire Road, the wider Shipley area and encompassing World Heritage Site Buffer Zone.

“The proposal will bring a vacant building back into use and support the growth and expansion of a globally recognised, successful local business which in turn will have wider benefits to the local economy.”

Councillor Alex Ross-Shaw, Portfolio Holder for Regeneration, Planning and Transport, said: “We are thrilled to see companies like TecnAir develop and thrive in Bradford district and we are doing everything we can to encourage them.

“Firms like TecnAir provide valuable highly skilled and paid jobs, and offer significant economic benefits to the area.”

He said it was a good example of “Bradford’s Economic Growth Strategy in action.”