Seagulls lands in South Bank
Agreeing terms with landlord CEG for a 31,150 sq ft Water Lane building, the paint reprocessing company has relocated to Leeds’ Temple district.
A flexible five-year lease has been agreed for the unit, a neighbour to theatre company Slung Low, where Seagulls Reuse will recycle, mix and sell paint as well as running a series of creative workshops close to the city centre.
Seagulls Reuse launched in 2005 as a social enterprise seeking to help the community, the brainchild of a co-founding partnership featuring Cat Hyde.
The organisation engaged with Leeds City Council and agreed to collect and reuse paint disposed at the local authority’s nine household waste recycling centres.
Seagulls now diverts almost 400 tonnes of reusable paint each year, checking and reprocessing it for resale. Bespoke colours are mixed and matched by the team and its volunteers before being resold from as little as £1 per tin.
Hyde said: “We’d love to have the capacity to collect leftover trade paint but, at the moment, we have enough paint from Leeds households to meet our customers’ needs.
“But we are hopeful that this new city centre location in the fast-growing Temple district will hopefully entice new painters through the door enabling further expansion.
“So this is a plea to people across the city to pop in and see significant savings on quality paint, varnish and timber care. Whether painting your home, office, community centre, shed or garden furniture – we have something for everyone no matter the colour.
“The new space will also enable us to expand the range of workshops we run, from beginners decorating courses, to mosaics, murals and terrazzo, we will also have decorating pods available for hire.”
Also in Temple, CEG has now secured support from Historic England to carry out repairs to the roof and walls of the Counting House to make it watertight prior to its refurbishment and use as a second home for Forging Futures Campus.
CEG launched Forging Futures Campus at Kirkstall Forge and delivers construction skills, employability, heritage, sustainability and innovation education and training.
Antonia Martin-Wright, director commercial development at CEG, said: “It is fantastic to welcome Seagulls to Water Lane. They join Slung Low and our new Forging Futures training and skills campus at Temple and share many of our values, both in terms of environmental sustainability and the importance of social enterprise. We wish them every success in their new city centre home. “
Agent Fox Lloyd Jones introduced Seagulls to its new home.
