Baytik Industrial Oasis (BIO), an industrial park wholly-owned by Kuwait Finance House-Bahrain in Hidd area, has signed up MRS Fashions as a tenant, with a $10 million garments factory planned on the leased premises.

The garments manufacturer has taken a five-year renewable lease on more than 9,500 sq m of purpose-built light industrial buildings in phase one of BIO, situated in Bahrain International Investment Park (BIIP) in Hidd, reported the Gulf Daily News, our sister publication.

"BIO was the logical choice for our expansion in Bahrain, providing us with a ready to occupy world-class facility in an environment dedicated to industrial production and a location that is, strategically, difficult to better anywhere in the region," MRS Fashions executive director Harinder Lamba said.

"The new facility underscores our commitment to Bahrain as a manufacturing base and reflects the confidence that we have in BIO," he added.

Established in Bahrain in 2000, MRS Fashions is part of Hong Kong headquartered Must Garment. The Bahrain operation currently has 1,500 employees manufacturing high quality apparel for export to international fashion retailers.

The company has an existing facility in Riffa and expects to increase its production to more than 8m garments annually when the new factory starts production.

"MRS Fashions' choice of BIO as a location for expansion in the kingdom was an endorsement of the world-class facility that all in Bahrain can be justly proud of," BIO chairman Osama Al Khajah said.

"We believe that MRS Fashions intends to employee 600 new staff at the upcoming facility.

"Their profile is an exact fit with the founding principles of BIIP and we look forward to a long relationship with such an established organisation," Al Khajah added.

BIO's current tenants include leading industrial companies from around the globe including Europe, the US, the Indian Sub-continent and the Far East. The facility is let out and managed by CBRE.

"BIO is an important development project for Bahrain, being a first-of-its-kind, world-class industrial facility," CBRE Bahrain sales and agency manager Steve Mayes said.

"It encourages manufacturing companies from around the world to invest in Bahrain, or to expand existing operations in the kingdom," he added.

Leasable units in BIO, which extends over net built up area of 54,000 sqm, are provided in ready to occupy, high specification, shell presentation for tenant fit-outs, with all services connected, and include two electrically operated roller shutter doors per unit, one with dock leveller provision, crane beam, external mezzanine level to receive planned and fitted washrooms and pantries.

Individual units, from 2,114 sqm can be leased and multiple units can be configured.-TradeArabia News Service