Ground was broken at a site in Goole on Thursday morning as construction work started on FTSE 100 chemicals firm Croda’s £7m distribution centre.

The new development, at the Goole 36 Enterprise Zone, will be Croda’s European distribution hub for products made at its manufacturing sites across the UK.

It comes after investment firm London Metric Property agreed a £24m deal to purchase the land for Croda’s new base from Homes England.

Yorkshire-headquartered GMI Construction has been appointed as lead contractor on the project, which will be overseen by logistics specialist Tritax Symmetry.

It is hoped Croda will be in the building by the end of 2020.

Tom Brophy, managing director for Western Europe at Croda, said: ‘We are delighted that work has started on this exciting project to build our state-of-the-art warehouse in Goole.

“The facility has been designed to take advantage of the latest technologies to minimise our environmental impact and offers the most advanced safety features to our warehouse team.

“This new site will enable us to continue to provide excellent service to our customers and to meet the demands of our growing global business.”

The new distribution centre will create 200 jobs in Goole.

Plans were approved for the scheme last year, and now construction work on the multi-million-pound project has started.

An official ground-breaking ceremony took place on-site on Thursday morning, with senior representation from Croda, Tritax Symmetry, Homes England and East Riding of Yorkshire Council all present.

Councillor Richard Burton, leader at East Riding of Yorkshire Council, said: “We feel extremely proud that Croda’s global headquarters are in the East Riding of Yorkshire and we very much welcome their confidence in making this multi-million-pound investment in the Goole 36 site happen.

“Supporting economic growth is one of the council’s key priorities and the benefits that this development – which will see the creation of a new worldwide distribution centre – will bring to both the town of Goole and the wider East Riding cannot be underestimated.”

The 232,000 sq.ft. warehouse space has been pre-let to Croda Europe – a world-leading maker and seller of speciality chemicals.

Tritax Symmetry said it expected to hand over the building to Croda for summer 2020.

Croda will transition into the facility by the end of this year.

Freddie Oakey, associate development director at Tritax Symmetry, said: “We are delighted to host an official ground-breaking ceremony with esteemed guests today.

“This event signifies a successful collaboration by all parties to bring forward a regionally significant development.

“Tritax Symmetry has increased activity in Yorkshire over the last few years and we are delighted to be delivering an important facility for such a prominent occupier.

“We continue our development of strategic sites across Yorkshire and look forward to delivering more assets of this type in the future.”

Croda has become the latest big name to commit to the 36 Enterprise Zone.

Siemens Mobility recently announced plans to build a £200m rail facility on-site covering a 67-acre plot, which will create nearly 700 new jobs.