Insider Media Limited

Consulting engineer Waldeck has been appointed to design the £210m Ocado delivery hub in Warwickshire. Director Matt Tyres told Insider that building work would commence on the site in January next year. He also revealed that the company, which has offices in Northampton, Nottingham, Lincoln and Sleaford, had ambitions to expand into London and Birmingham.

Waldeck is responsible for the structural design of Ocado’s second Customer Fulfilment Centre (CFC), as well as the infrastructure on the 35-acre site on the Birch Coppice Business Park.

North Warwickshire Borough Council has agreed to an extension to the business park, confirming Ocado’s plans for the 350,000 sq ft warehouse facility.

Work is expected to begin on site in January 2011 and it’s hoped the CFC, which will create up to 2,000 jobs, will be fully operational by September 2012.

Tyres said that the project would take about 39 weeks to complete and Ocado had earmarked September 2012 as the date to have the site up-and-running.

“We think we’ll be able to take on an extra two or three staff members on the back of the project,” said Tyres.

He said that the company was also working on a number of social housing and care home contracts: “We survived the downturn pretty well. We could be affected by [Tuesday’s] spending review but we aren’t reliant on public sector work.”

He also said that although nothing had been decided, the company had “ambitions to expand into London and Birmingham”.

“We have done a lot of work with companies in Birmingham and Solihull; the manufacturing sector is one we work closely with, and we have some good experience in the automotive sector – if there are opportunities for us to expand over there, it would make sense to take them.”

The company has worked with Ocado at its CFC in Hatfield since 2007.

Director of legal and business affairs at Ocado, Neill Abrams, said: “The new £210m distribution centre is a major investment for Ocado to ensure future growth of the company and we are very pleased to have Waldeck as a part of our design team to make sure this crucial project is delivered on time and on budget.”

Waldeck also has offices in Peterborough and Hull.