Logistics Property Main Feature
SHEDDING LIGHT
Steve Mitchell, partner at surveyors Colliers International, is one of the few people who can shed light on the Asda strategy. Mitchell and his team were chosen to advise Asda on its distribution property portfolio in 2008 after the fi rm unceremoniously dumped its former advisors Savills following a dispute. Talking exclusively to SHD Maga-
zine, Mitchell says that the list of 30 sites under his care will grow. “We are on-site building in Rochdale and Falkirk, and we are revisting plans for a 600,000 sq ft facility in the West Court to replace the Portbury depot. We
Rochdale
Gracie Fields, Cyril Smith and Asda: all three have contributed to making Rochdale the place it is.
Asda’s announcement last summer that it planned to opena 633,500 sq ft distribution facility at Wilson Bowden’s Kingsway business park gave the town a much-needed economic boost.
The 44-acre development provides new chilled warehousing, waste recycling, and includes the extra fl oorspace needed following the Netto takeover.
Robert Grafton, director at Wilson Bowden, fi rst heard whispers that a big retailer was looking at his site before Christmas 2010. Like many observers, he was surprised that Asda shortlisted Bolton’s Cuta- cre site – which still needs infrastructure investment and planning permission – and the troubled Omega site at Warrington, along with his own.
He recalls: “I suppose they wouldn’t have looked if they weren’t real options, so I wouldn’t say the other two sites on the shortlist were straw men. The fact is that there’s very few real options for sites capable of taking a 600,000 sq ft warehouse.”
Asda didn’t take much wooing – but Rochdale coun- cil wooed them all the same. “Asda’s team toured all three potential sites on one day, and when they got to us the Rochdale Development Agency put on a good show. The Asda team meeting Rochdale’s senior planners helped enormously,” says Grafton.
Having decided what they wanted, Asda moved with speed. “It took six months, which isn’t bad. For Asda, property is just part of the supply chain,” Grafton says.
The £41m depot is being built by McLaren Construc- tion. The low carbon project is aiming for a BREEAM Excellent rating and ‘A’ energy performance rating.
ADSA’s sustainability targets include: the collection of waste heat from the refrigeration plant to serve underfl oor heating in both the ancillary and offi ce area; a biofuel plant and photovoltaic cells for effi - cient electricity generation; and a combined heat and power plant fuelled by renewable biofuels.
Cold comfort: Asda has revived its cold store plans.
are not talking directly to anyone yet about locations, although we are inviting proposals from developers,” he says. “This is structural – it’s about increasing cavity in some regions, and we are aware of other regions where that may be neces- sary. It’s mostly about chilled capacity.” The incorporation of Netto’s logistics network is now on Mitchell’s desk. Two years after the takeover, the future of the 570,000 sq ft former Kwik Save, Somerfi eld and eventually Netto depot at Sherburn-in- Elmet, near Leeds, had not been certain. The 12-year-old depot was the subject of a £27m sale-and-leaseback deal, and there are 14 years left on an expensive lease. The Sherburn depot posed a problem for cost-conscious Asda, which has now an- nounced plans to upgrade the depot into a
www.shdlogistics.com
state-of-the-art ‘cross dock’ allowing products to be shipped in and out in minimal time. If the future of the Sherburn depot was unsure, the future of Netto’s smaller Daventry depot is decided. “We’re letting the lease go at Daventry.
We can serve those needs from existing depots, and the lease was expiring this summer anyway. The 100,000 sq ft of lost capacity can be incorporated seam- lessly into Asda’s portfolio,” says Mitchell. According to Asda, over the past fi ve years the distribution team has delivered almost 25% more products, despite driving 19m fewer miles. The three new depots will take an additional one million miles off the road. Asda may not be telling anyone where its distribution property network is go- ing – but it’s clearly going far. n
Storage Handling Distribution May 2012 47
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