A former Premier League footballer has opened a construction materials supplier's new regional base.
Jody Morris, who played for Chelsea and was a first-team coach at the club during Frank Lampard's time as manager, opened the new GRS office in Bury St Edmunds this week.
The Warwickshire-based firm handles around 20 million tonnes of construction materials each year, with a turnover of more than £500m.
Morris, who most recently managed Swindon Town in League Two before being sacked last year, is a member of the League Managers Association (LMA), which GRS has a partnership with.
"It was a real pleasure to be invited along to open this new office for GRS," he said.
"The LMA has worked with GRS for the past ten years to support the development of their people using knowledge and skills gained on and off the pitch and I hope we’ll be working with this new growing Suffolk team in the years to come.”
From left to right: GRS major projects director Andy Regan, GRS trading MD Antony Beamish, Karim Massaad of Suffolk Chamber of Commerce, Jody Morris from the League Managers Association, GRS executive director Gary Coles and GRS chief executive Jon Fisher (Image: Regina Ray)
The Hollow Road office will be home to the GRS major projects team and the construction company will supply materials for the east's projected housebuilding boom and growing demand for energy infrastructure.
The firm says it is the start of its "multimillion-pound plan" to increase its presence across East Anglia - a plan which includes opening a rail freight terminal near Ipswich and marine wharves at two locations on the east coast.
In the East of England, GRS has already been involved in work on the A14 and a series of improvement projects with Anglian Water.
From left to right: GRS chief executive Jon Fisher, Jody Morris from the League Managers Association, GRS executive director Gary Coles and Karim Massaad of Suffolk Chamber of Commerce, with members of the new GRS East of England team (Image: Regina Ray)
Jon Fisher, GRS chief executive, said: “There’s huge potential for growth across East Anglia, probably greater than any other part of the UK, and having a base in Bury St Edmunds gives us a platform to do business in this part of the world.
"The opening of our new office is just the start of a multimillion-pound plan to grow in this region. We plan to open a rail freight terminal near Ipswich, marine wharves in two locations on the East Coast, and a new facility for bagging materials to supply East Anglia’s builders’ merchants.”
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