AN £800,000 investment at a Darlington industrial park is expected to create about 20 jobs.

Marrtree Investments of Harrogate has completed the 24,000sq ft refurbishment of warehouse and industrial units on a two-acre site on Yarm Road, Darlington.

Gary Robinson, managing director of GDR Horseboxes, is the first tenant to move in. The company manufactures bespoke horseboxes costing £17,000-£100,000 for equestrian customers across the UK.

It has relocated to a 7,000sq ft unit at Marrtree Business Park, from smaller premises nearby. The new unit includes warehousing and offices and will enable the business, which currently produces 40 horseboxes a year, to expand.

Mr Robinson said: "We had outgrown our previous base and this new accommodation – which enables us to have our own showroom in addition to workshop space for the production of our horseboxes – will enable us to grow as a business to meet increasing customer demand."

He currently employs four, but hopes to recruit at least two more skilled staff over the next 12 months.

Jonathan Simpson, of Connect Property North East, who advised Marrtree on the letting, said: "The success of the Yarm Road site so far, and the interest we’ve had in the remaining 17,000sq ft of industrial and warehouse space, is testament to the vision of Marrtree, who acquired the vacant brownfield site last year, and have totally refurbished it to attract high quality occupiers like GDR Horseboxes."

William Marshall, director of Martree Investments, said: "Darlington is going from strength to strength. The town has just been ranked number three in the UK’s top ten fastest-growing economies, and its location on the HS2 route will create a further jobs boost for the town and an under-two-hour journey time to London."

Founded in Bradford in the 1940s, and now run by the third generation, brothers William and George Marshall, the Marrtree Group of companies has interests in commercial and residential property, quarrying and forestry. It is based in Cardale Park, Harrogate.