River Tees port facility name is reborn

AV Dawson has amalgamated several parts of its Middlesbrough-based port and logistics operations to form one, integrated port facility as it drives forward with further growth and expansion.

The business has called this new facility Port of Middlesbrough in honour of a port that was on the same stretch of the River Tees back in the 1830s, prior to the construction of Middlesbrough Dock.

Gary Dawson, managing director at AV Dawson said: “Over the years, we’ve acquired various sites as we’ve expanded our operations and its become a challenge to describe succinctly what AV Dawson Ltd is.

“We have thought long and hard about what drives the business forward and what defines us – we’ve concluded that our location and the River Tees are key to this, neither of which feature in the company name. So given the nature of all of the multimodal assets and activities that we own and operate, we are best positioned from a marketing perspective describing ourselves as a port.”

The new port marks the start of a three-year port masterplan to further develop the site, which will go on to create further jobs and investment in the local area. This plan, an investment of over £10m includes the construction of a plastic waste recycling plant, a new headoffice and the enhancement of AV Dawson’s existing quayside to accommodate larger vessels. It’s anticipated that these developments will create over a hundred new jobs on the site.

By Jake Frith