Up to 800 jobs could be created with a proposed new distribution centre for retail chain Poundland.
The facility will be located on the South Lancs Industrial Estate in Ashton-in-Makerfield, Wigan, subject to planning approval, and will serve the company's North West network of shops.
David Molyneux, Wigan Council's cabinet member for economy, said: "This is fantastic news for Wigan Borough and shows why we are a major player in the creation of a Northern Powerhouse.
"We are very pro-business at Wigan Council and have worked closely with the developer, db symmetry, and Poundland to ensure that the plans come to fruition.
"Major investments in the borough are crucial to the local economy and will enable our local residents to access good quality jobs and new opportunities."
He added: "This will be the largest single employment-creating application that we have dealt with since the authority was formed in 1974 and in my view would rank alongside Heinz coming to Wigan in the 1950s."
The Poundland site will cover more than 30,000 square metres on the former land of Georgia Pacific in Lockett Road, Ashton-in-Makerfield.
A planning application for the site has been lodged with the council and will be decided on a date to be set.
The development has the potential to create up to 800 jobs in the coming years, including skilled jobs both full-time and part-time as well as apprenticeships, said the council.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article