Coop’s new Avonmouth retail distribution centre sign of big deals to come

New figures published today reveal that whilst the industrial property market in Greater Bristol remains challenging, there are positive signs of improvement.

Take up figures from the Industrial Agents Society for Greater Bristol for the first six months of 2012 total 969,066 square feet in 92 different deals.

Chris Miles, Associate Director in Jones Lang LaSalle’s industrial and logistics team and Chairman of the Industrial Agents Society Western Branch said:

“This year has been challenging but has seen the first speculative built scheme in Bristol for the past five years at Longwell Green Trade Park”

He continued; “Generally supply of modern and high quality industrial property remains limited which is putting pressure on landlords to undertake major refurbishments on older premises. This will go some way to meet demand but more is still required.”

Regionally, Avonmouth continues to demonstrate its credentials as one of the key distribution locations of the UK with the Coop’s new Regional Distribution Centre at Avonmouth. The £35 million 435,780 sq ft facility has been developed by Stoford in a joint venture with Gallan Group, and will serve more than 400 food stores in the South West and provide up to 1,000 new jobs.

Mr. Miles added “the Co-operative Group’s impressive new facility demonstrates the importance of Avonmouth and it’s a fantastic result for new jobs in the region. The Greater Bristol region is well placed to meet this demand and there is talk of ASDA identifying a site in the area for a new distribution centre of similar size, again great news for job creation.”