Ocado is to create its second major UK distribution hub at IM Properties’ 400-acre Birch Coppice business park in Tamworth, West Midlands.
The online supermarket is in the final stages of talks to agree its purchase of 35 acres of land at the park. Terms are undisclosed, although local agents said land values in the area were around £300,000 per acre.
Ocado, which was forced to cut its sharelisting price from between 200p and 270p to 180p for its stock market float last month, will build a 350,000 sq ft, hi-tech warehouse on the site.
Ocado is expected to use £45m of the proceeds raised from its £1bn flotation to help build the property.
Kevin Ashfield, development manager at IM Properties, said: “After gaining planning consent, we could start on site the following week. We’ve got to get on with it as Ocado’s timescales are quite pressing. The facility could open by late 2011.”
The Ocado facility will form part of the 123-acre, 2m sq ft second phase of development at Birch Coppice, which goes before council planners on Monday (16 August).
A separate planning application for Ocado’s shed is to be submitted shortly.
The warehouse will cost around £210m to build and will create as many as 2,200 jobs. It will house an automated picking system, similar to the one in operation at Ocado’s Hatfield distribution centre.
In March, Ocado announced that it had narrowed its search for a depot to five locations – three in the West Midlands, in Tamworth, Coventry and Hinkley, and two in the South. It had been expected to make a decision by April.
Colliers International is advising Ocado; Eagleton & Co is letting agent at Birch Coppice.
lisa.pilkington@estatesgazette.com
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