Lidl UK, Britain’s fastest growing supermarket*, along with Delta Properties, can confirm Lidl’s purchase of a 33 acre site at Delta Properties’ Central Park development in Avonmouth near Bristol, to build a new 600,000 square feet Regional Distribution Centre (RDC) to service Lidl’s expanding operations in the west of England.
The RDC is the supermarket’s fourth new warehouse to be announced in the last 12 months and follows confirmation that the retailer is also set to open new Regional Distribution Centres in Exeter, Wednesbury and Southampton.
The Bristol-based RDC will replace Lidl’s existing warehouse in Weston-Super-Mare and is necessary to accommodate the scale of future operations within the region as Lidl continues with its ambitious expansion plans in the UK.
The new warehouse will be double the size of the existing RDC in Weston-Super-Mare and will become one of Lidl’s largest, with the location enhancing its operations and logistics.
Lidl UK Head of Warehouse Expansion, Adrienne Howells, commented: “It’s an incredibly exciting time for Lidl as our sales performance continues to outperform the market. We are therefore working hard to ensure that the right infrastructure is in place for us to manage increased customer demand.
“We have big ambitions within the South West of England and our proposed new RDCs, both in Bristol and East Devon, will help to fulfil our expansion plans whilst continuing to service our existing stores in the regions.”
Michael Shebson from Delta Properties added: “We are delighted to welcome Lidl to Central Park. They are an internationally recognised success story and we are pleased they have chosen Central Park as a crucial location to service their fast-expanding network of stores in the south west of England. In 2016 alone, we have welcomed occupiers to Central Park who will be immediately developing almost 2 million square feet of modern logistics space, providing over 1,500 new jobs to the Severnside/Avonmouth Enterprise Area in addition to construction jobs.
“Central Park is now established as the location of choice for logistics in the south west. Direct rail freight services, connecting us to locations throughout the UK, will be operational from next month and plans for the new M49 junction, coming straight into Central Park, are almost finalised. We have full planning consent and with more land available for immediate development, we look forward to welcoming further occupiers in the future.”
Lidl employees at the current Weston-Super-Mare RDC have been assured that all existing job roles will be retained at the new premises. With a bigger operation, the warehouse will also pave the way for further job creation in the area.
This move follows Lidl’s announcement in November of last year that it would be investing more than £1.5billion over the next three years as it continues to expand its store and warehouse portfolio to accommodate its rapid growth in the UK.
Bilfinger GVA and Knight Frank represented Delta Properties. Colliers acted for Lidl.
*According to Kantar Worldpanel, April 2016