LOGISTICS group Stobart is pressing ahead with plans to develop further phases of its Widnes multi-modal hub.

The company is developing its road, rail, sea and air divisions and employs about 1,000 staff at its existing Warrington, Widnes and Runcorn transport operations.

In addition, it recently created a state-of-the-art distribution centre for supermarket giant Tesco at Widnes which will support 1,000 jobs when fully operational.

Yesterday, Stobart chief executive Andrew Tinkler revealed that talks are now taking place with a range of other retailers about the next phase of development at Widnes.

He said Stobart will host a site visit at Widnes for prospective partners next Wednesday. He said: “There’s other phases to complete and we are in talks with other customers now to develop that site.

“Widnes is the right location for this and the opportunity for putting more into rail is really coming into its own at the moment.”

Mr Tinkler said a joint venture with AW Jenkinson to provide biomass products could also generate jobs at the neighbouring port of Runcorn.

“We anticipate that the biomass business market could increase tenfold in the next three years.

“Our biomass joint venture will lead to opportunities in that area to open up the port and get more deals out of that.”