This autumn will see independent freight forwarding and logistics company Davies Turner start construction of a second multi-million pound regional distribution centre (RDC), doubling the size of its present capacity in Avonmouth, Bristol, UK.
The company has planning consent for a 140,000 sq ft (13,000 sq m) logistics hub equipped with 60 ft (18 m) high racking for pallet storage.
Looking to the future, the company has bought enough land at Central Park to develop a second warehouse on the same site of at least another 125,000 sq ft (11,650 sq m) as business expands again, following the pattern set at its other regional distribution centres over the last 25 years. One advantage of this phased construction is that the second building can if necessary be designed for a specific customer, allowing for a bespoke lay-out and specialist automation.
Together with its existing Bristol premises at the M5/M49 junction, the new RDC will provide more than 250,000 sq ft (23,250 sq m) of logistics warehousing plus multi-storey mezzanines suitable for sortation, rework and the fulfilment services required for the company's growing logistics services associated with e-commerce and online retail business.
Davies Turner chairman, Philip Stephenson said: "Prime locations and affordable sites of this quality are becoming very difficult to find anywhere in the UK. We have acquired the 12-acre (5 hectare) freehold site, which is part of the Central Park development adjacent to the proposed new M49 junction, from Delta Properties. We were attracted by the strategic location where the M4 and M5 intersect close to the Severn River crossings and the business park is even rail-connected.
"Our Bristol location, which also houses our subsidiary, Davies Turner Air Cargo, has had outstanding success and expanded rapidly in co-operation with our European partners and in the wider world markets including North America, the Middle and Far-East, and Australasia".
Completion of the purpose-built facility is scheduled for mid to late 2017, nine years after Davies Turner completed the construction of the first major addition to its original freight forwarding and logistics branch at Bristol.
The company's existing hub is close by and will operate in tandem with the new facility, with each site delivering complementary supply chain solutions.
"This cluster-based approach will allow us to pool our local management and labour resources. It represents a much-needed expansion of capacity serving our customers in the South West. In fact we have already had to take on extra warehousing nearby on a short-term lease to supplement our existing RDC," added Stephenson.
"We have an excellent track record in successful warehouse design and operation, including both dedicated and multi-user facilities. Warehousing and logistics support our freight forwarding services to cater for all customer import, export and distribution requirements."
Bristol is one of Davies Turner's key multimodal freight hubs, with satellite branches in Bridgend and Plymouth. The region also works with the rest of the company's network with premises of equal importance at Birmingham, Dartford, Heathrow, Manchester and Cumbernauld in Scotland, as well as Dublin in Ireland - with another 14 smaller branches supporting them.
This news comes just a couple of months after Davies Turner started work on doubling the size of its freight and logistics hub at Cumbernauld in central Scotland.
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