Etherington plans base for businesses

From the archive, first published Monday 16th Apr 2007.

The former chief executive of Bradford City Football Club will open a £4.5 million business park in Bradford.

Peter Etherington will launch his company's Oxygen8 Business Park in Gildersome this week.

The 20,000 square foot complex will have room for more than 200 people to work and Mr Etherington expects blue chip companies to set up shop there.

His Oxygen8 company already owns office buildings in Lancashire and specialises in providing facilities to small business.

Following his involvement with Bradford City, Mr Etherington has moved to the area and now hopes to begin opening more business centres in the region.

Mr Etherington said: "Oxygen8 has predominately operated in Lancashire but I came to realise the demand in this area of Yorkshire. After some research we found the building and will open from Friday."

He hopes to serve the business communities of both Leeds and Bradford and said the location of the site, just of the M62 motorway was chosen with this in mind.

The centre gets its official launch on Friday and will be opened by Emmerdale actress Malandra Burrows.

While with the Bantams he developed the highly successful Bantams Business Centre, now home to Valley Parade sponsors Intersonic.

Mr Etherington said: "Bradford is a city is growing. There are a lot of banking companies already based in Bradford and we hope to meet their requirements for offices. We will have space for business incubators as well as offices to cater for the SME market and larger. We are already talking to several large companies about locating here and a few have signed up already."

Oxygen8 has offices which can cater for businesses with one or up to 60 employees. All are fully furnished and equipped with internet access and phone lines.

In a bid to attract start-up companies intimidated by long-term leases, the centre, based on Gelderd Road will also offer short-term contracts to tenants of just three months.

Mr Etherington has more than 25 years of experience in the sales and marketing industry and his son, Matt, plays for Premiership side West Ham United.