Shadrack and Wallace Billericay in showroom and flats plan

Shadrack and Wallace, a furniture repair and upholstery business, has submitted major plans to Basildon Council, to demolish their current warehouses and revamp the space.

Bosses are hoping, once approved, the plans will allow them to build a block of 21 flats alongside office space, a furniture showroom and a workshop on Radford Way Industrial Park.

Co-director John Shadrack is hoping the plan will help secure the future of the business and extend its 34-year history in the area.

Mr Shadrack, 57, said: “We are expanding with a new showroom on the same site. We put this plan in ourselves, and we are going to stay here.

“Years down the road, we will be getting to the point where we either want to move on or expand.

“Our current workshops are starting to be a brick shed. They aren’t worth putting the money into. We want to make them bigger, we want them new and improved.

“This will be the next generation, and we are a thriving business already. We want to make things more steady and more up and running.

“The brand is quite steady and well known throughout England and we are putting this plan in as part of our next steps.”

One of these warehouses currently contains ProRite, who specialise in mechanical engineering and are understood to be looking to stay in the area.

The planning application notes that existing employment is to remain at the present level for Shadrack and Wallace, whilst a temporary workshop will be required, “there are no intentions to move away from Billericay”.

The plans are also to “increase opportunities for new employment on the site and develop new business opportunities for people”.

Mr Shadrack added: “We are looking at upholsterers from Norfolk, we are putting up the apartments for them to stay in and if you go back to the 80s, it was common workplaces had that.

“This isn’t a high-paying trade but it is highly skilled.”