A CARPET company has rescued a trading estate left devastated when a chipboard factory folded.

The George Reynolds Industrial Estate, in Shildon, County Durham, has been bought by the Createcity Group for more than £2m.

The deal will bring jobs and investment to an area which suffered the backlash of a manufacturing downturn and is expected to double the group's turnover within the next five years.

The Northern Echo revealed earlier this month that site owners were in advanced negotiations with a firm interested in buying the estate.

A total of 129 staff lost their jobs when employers Masistar went into receivership in February. The plant assets were sold to Hexham company Egger (UK) for £4.5m and have since been shipped abroad.

Createcity, based in Darlington, owns and operates a number of well-known companies, including Frank's Factory Flooring, Maguires Carpets and Cloverdale Carpets.

The company was unable to say if the estate would bear the name of its founder, Darlington Football Club chairman George Reynolds, but it is thought to be unlikely.

It is not the first time Createcity has shown interest in premises formerly owned by Mr Reynolds.

The company's founder, Billy Maguire, bought a retail site from the multi-millionaire in the past and has also linked up with the entrepreneur to carpet executive boxes and a VIP seating area in the 25,000-seater Reynolds Arena football stadium.

It plans, subject to getting necessary planning permission, to develop the estate into a business park as well as using it as a location to expand its operations.

The estate has 260,000sq ft of warehousing space and 6,000sq ft of office space.

Createcity intends to move onto the site in February next year and will use 100,000sq ft of warehousing space to increase its carpet storage to more than 20,000 rolls.

The group will create 30 jobs during the next two years in both office-based and warehousing areas of the business and additional jobs will be brought to the area if it manages to attract other companies to the site.

Createcity has its head office in Darlington, which also has warehousing space of 90,000sq ft. It is understood that much of the headquarters work will eventually move to the Shildon estate.

Sanderson, Townend and Gilbert, which was the selling agent for this deal, will act as letting agent for the warehousing space.

Jason Maguire, managing director of Createcity, said: "We believe this site will become the most economical place for businesses to take up warehousing space in the North-East. It also offers great scope for our carpet companies to secure an even greater stake in the regional and national market place."