B Smith leases new warehouse after fire

Managing director Andrew Smith, who was on a skiing holiday when the blaze started at Stanier Road, Warndon, said the firm was "well on the way to being back to normal". The firm lost around a week's business as a result of the fire on 2 April.

"We're a long-established family firm set up by my father in the 1960s. We grew rapidly in the 1990s and were just entering a new phase with some nice paper cups business brewing, which thankfully wasn't scuppered by the fire," he said.

BSP's turnover currently stands at £4m and is expected to increase to around £6m this year.

Smith said the firm lost around £900,000 worth of stock, including carrier bags made from plastic, paper and material and plastic cups, in the fire. The destroyed warehouse had space for 2,500 pallets.

The fire investigators thought the electric motors on the mobile racking caught fire.

Smith said he had put in a £2-3m insurance claim and had already received the first cheque of £500,000 from insurer Zurich.

"They've insisted that we put sprinklers in the new warehouse."

Around 100 firefighters from Worcester, Droitwich, Malvern, Evesham and Pershore tackled the blaze. The 12 staff on site were rapidly evacuated and no-one was injured.

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