Hepworth Building Products on Eastern Avenue finally closed at the end of 2007, by then most of the work force had a gone with a phased shutdown that had begun in June. By the summer of 2008 the site had been demolished to make way for small industrial units, which were never built.

The site remained empty until 2017 when building work finally began, not on industrial units but housing after the Planning Inspectorate overturned the Lichfield District Council’s planning committee rejection of the housing scheme.

The site started life in 1974 when it was known as Ketch Plastics. In 1980 it was acquired by Hepworth, and in 1990 became Hepworth Building Products, which in turn was acquired by Vaillant and then Wavin in 2005. Wavin moved Hep20 production to Doncaster and rubber seal manufacturing was switched to Poland.