One of Britain’s largest herbs and spices companies, The Bart Ingredients Co. Ltd, will combine its three Bristol operations into one facility at Junction One, Central Park, Bristol, which is owned and developed by Barwood Capital, the Northampton-based UK regional real estate investment and development specialist, as part of a 50:50 joint venture with British Airways Pension Trustees Limited, which manages the site through its Barwood Regional Growth Fund III (2017) working with asset manager Galena Real Estate.
Bart Ingredients’ new HQ at Central Park is a 139,061 sq ft (12,919 sq m) speculatively developed logistics warehouse adjacent to the new M49 junction (J1) in the south west’s premier distribution location which is within the Avonmouth Severnside Enterprise Area.
Bart Ingredients was founded in 1963 by husband and wife team Reg and Jo Bartlam. They started selling herbs and spice racks from their Bristol home, from which the Bart Spices company was born. Since then, Bart has grown and retained its UK independence by joining the Fuchs Group, a German, family-owned business and Europe’s largest supplier of herbs and spices.
Bart Ingredients has appointed Bis Henderson, the specialist supply chain and logistics consultant, to project manage the fit-out works for its new manufacturing and distribution building.
James Dorman, chief operating officer, Bart Ingredients said: “While we continue to operate across our existing premises, we’ve wasted no time in starting the fit out of our new HQ. We will start moving over our production and packing facilities from our three sites in January 2021. This new home marks an exciting next stage for our future growth plans and is the culmination of several years’ efforts to bring our expansion capabilities under one roof and to meet our fast-growing customer requirements.”
Andrew Barlow, director, head of asset management, Barwood Capital added: “It has been a pleasure working with Bart Ingredients to agree this significant letting at Junction One for their new HQ and we wish them continued and deserved success. Their growth is great for the economy, the local area, consumers and their palates. We developed this scheme with British Airways Pension Trustees to meet business demand in this prime south west logistics location and are delighted that Bart has chosen Junction One.”
Savills and Knight Frank acted on behalf of Barwood Capital and British Airways Pension Trustees. Curve Projects was the project manager on the development.