To mark its 275th anniversary - making it the second oldest family-run firm in Yorkshire - hand tool manufacturer Richard Carter is announcing significant growth plans.
The Huddersfield-based firm is planning to build a new 9,000sq ft warehouse to cope with increasing customer demand, and will commemorate the occasion by burying a company time capsule under the new site. Alongside it will be time capsules created by key customers and local schools with whom the business has longstanding links.

The warehouse will be built next to the current factory and mark the first time the company has expanded its premises since it moved from its old manufacturing site in 1999. As well as providing additional storage, it will allow the company to significantly expand its manufacturing capabilities.

Managing director, Richard Carter commented: "This is a landmark year for us, 275 years since our founder, Jeremiah Carter, made the very first Carters hand tool, and I'm thrilled to mark the occasion by expanding our premises - which is testament to the skill and workmanship of all the staff who work for us, past and present."

Mr Carter is the great-great-great-great-great grandson of Jeremiah, who established the company in 1740. Since then it has seen 10 monarchs reign over Britain - the first of which was King George II, survived the Boer war, the First and Second World Wars, lived through the Industrial Revolution, seen the rise and demise of the coal mining industry and felt numerous booms and crashes in the housing market. It also survived a near-disastrous fire in 1957.