Work has begun on a Festool's new £10 million, solar-powered headquarters.

The power tools manufacturer enlisted the help of construction consultants Pick Everard, which designed the new building in Bury St Edmonds.

The new 2,800m² site is three miles away from the current offices in Saxham Business Park, and is expected to be finished by March 2019.

It will include meeting rooms, office space, a service centre, demonstration facilities where merchants can learn how the tools are best used, a warehouse and café.

Ipswich-based Barnes Construction is building the project using Festool’s tools. It will be heated and cooled using electricity rather than gas, and its energy will be provided by solar panels.

Merchants are encouraged to visit Festool’s on-site training area, where they can see demonstrations of how the tools work, and service area where tools can be serviced and repaired.

Paul Darlow, Regional Director at Pick Everard, said: “Festool tools have a reputation for being reliable, durable and intelligently designed, and our brief was to deliver a building that conveyed these brand qualities.

“The new building also had to be an aesthetically-pleasing, high quality development. Furthermore, the set BREEAM target – which assesses and rates the sustainability of buildings – for the build was ‘excellent’ to reflect Festool’s approach to reducing CO2 emissions.”

Ole Held, UK Managing Director at Festool, said: “This is a very exciting project for us and long overdue.

“For us, Bury St Edmunds is our UK home and we are delighted to expand our operation in a building fit for purpose”.