£200m Ocado deal as business park gets go-ahead
The Midlands’ largest property deal of the year is set to go ahead as the green light is given to a 124-acre extension to Birch Coppice Business Park. Insider has learned that Ocado, the online grocer, is set to sign a £200m deal on a distribution hub on the site “in the next few days”.
Ocado, which is also the delivery service for supermarket Waitrose, is set to sign a deal for a 35-acre distribution hub on the site.
The remaining 89 acres at the business park have been "zoned for warhousing" and have not yet been formally let to any other parties.
Although neither party is disclosing the price paid by Ocado for the 35-acre development plot – the size of 17 football pitches – it is thought the value could be as high as £500,000 per acre. The warehousing and distribution building will be 350,000 sq ft.
Ocado's high tech centralised distribution facility will process between 180,000 and 200,000 customer orders per week. The company is on the record as requiring a local workforce which will make more than 2,000 new employment opportunities available in North Warwickshire and the area around Tamworth.
