Environmental consultants to open new £1m lab in Hyde

Hyde-based Envirolab will officially open its new £1m laboratory next month.

The expansion of Envirolab forms a key part of a strategy by its Helsby-based parent company, RSK Group, to become the UK's leading 'one-stop shop' environmental consultancy.

Following the culmination of 18 months of planning, the new facility will expand Envirolab's analytical remit to include all common inorganic contaminants, virtually eliminating subcontracted services and saving around £500,000 per year.

Envirolab hopes this investment will put it in a prime position to pick up work from resurgent property developers working on brownfield sites.

Staff numbers have already increased at the company by six to twenty-six, with six further appointments expected in the next few months.

The inorganics laboratory will be managed by John Gustafson, who joined Envirolab last May after spending 20 years working for major laboratory companies like Severn Trent Laboratories and TES Bretby.

He said: "In the past, we've focused on identifying hydrocarbons, like oil and tars, which frequently pollute the ground after heavy industry has taken place. The new inorganics lab will enable us to identify substances like arsenic, cadmium and other heavy metals."

The inorganics laboratory is not the first ambitious move Envirolab has taken in the interest of company growth and adaptation to client needs.

In 2006, it invested £200,000 in new gas chromatography instrumentation and became one of the few laboratories in the UK to achieve United Kingdom Accreditation Service for total petroleum hydrocarbons analysis.

The launch will take place on Friday 10 July.