M&S £67m distribution centre marks the start of building boom in Yorkshire

The opening comes just weeks after fashion retailer ASOS announced a 40m investment in a warehouse in Barnsley as part of its plans to quadruple the size of the business over the next five years.

Both mega warehouses are owned by distribution company ProLogis, which is keen to expand further in the region.

ProLogis's senior vice-president, Alan Sarjant, said the key areas of focus are around Bradford, York and Leeds.

"We are always open to new opportunities in Yorkshire. We want to invest in the region going forward. It's one of the major population centres in the UK," he said.

At 1.1m sq ft, Bradford will be the largest warehouse in the M&S network and a key part of its strategy to revamp the supply chain.

There are just over 200 people employed at the site and another 100 will join in the coming months.

The opening was delayed following the decision to slash non-essential spending last year, but once it is up and running, the site is expected to create 1,200 new jobs in the area.

M&S has created its biggest transport and distribution hub in the UK on the former West Bowling Golf Club, off Rooley Lane, close to the M606.

Both M&S and ProLogis are investing 20m in the development and there are plans to create a further 1,000 jobs at a range of business and enterprise units for small to medium-sized businesses. In addition, 145 houses are being built on the eastern part of the site.

Coun David Green, Bradford Council's Executive Member for Regeneration and Economy, said: "The opening of the Marks & Spencer site marks the start of a new era of business at ProLogis Park Bradford.

"This is an area that can deliver what businesses are looking for – a large, skilled labour market, excellent transport links and supportive partners to work alongside."

ProLogis has deliberately tried to involve local companies in the construction of the warehouse. Bradford-based Barratt Steel was chosen as the major steel supplier, and Keighley-based Wells Spiral Tubes won the contract to provide water storage and drainage at the site.

ProLogis's managing director, Andrew Griffiths, said the group still owns 11.2 acres of land with scope for another 250,000 square feet distribution facility at the site.

"We are actively seeking interested parties to help us create more jobs in the area," he said. "We are keen to further participate in the regeneration of the Bradford area."

Sustainability is high on ProLogis's agenda and the warehouse was constructed to achieve an "excellent rating under the Building Research Establishment's Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM), the UK's national standard for best practice in sustainable development and environmental performance.

ProLogis developed a carbon-neutral shell for the Bradford site, offsetting any emissions produced during the construction process through the purchase of carbon credits and various organic reductions.

All new ProLogis UK developments are designed to achieve BREEAM "excellent" accreditation and ProLogis has built more than five million square feet of such rated distribution space in the UK since 2006.

Over in Barnsley, growing fashion retailer ASOS is planning to create up to 1,000 jobs when it opens a 40m state-of-the-art distribution centre in the town.

The online retailer, which emulates the designer looks of celebrities such as Kate Moss and Sienna Miller, said the Barnsley site will be one of the three biggest retail warehouses in the UK.

ASOS chief executive Nick Robertson said when the site opens, in May next year, it will have 360 permanent staff and up to 1,000 employees during busy periods when it takes on temporary workers.

"We will have between 500 and 1,000 staff in place from day one," he said. "We've done our research; Barnsley has an abundance of available workforce who have the skills we need.

"The availability of big sheds like this is fairly limited. This site has the ability to turn us into a 1bn business within the next five years."

The 530,000 sq ft warehouse, at Park Spring Road, in Barnsley, will be three times bigger than ASOS's warehouse, in Hemel Hempstead, in Hertfordshire, which will be closed.

ProLogis' Barnsley centre has good links to the A1 and M62, putting some 15 million potential customers within two hours' drive time.

The hourly rate for employees working in storage and distribution in South Yorkshire is estimated to be 16 per cent lower than the national average. But Mr Robertson said money was not the key factor, adding that Barnsley's biggest attractions were the size of the warehouse, the quality of the local workforce and its excellent transport links.

Andrew Wade, analyst at Numis Securities, said: "This warehouse marks a step-change in ASOS's development, being sufficient to take the business to its five-year target of 1bn of sales."

ASOS chief executive Nick Robertson said the capacity will increase to over 1bn of annual sales once the group pumps in a further 19m of investment over the next three years.

ProLogis has a third park in Wakefield, which has seven buildings occupied by M&S Toiletries, Scottish and Newcastle, Royal Mail, HI Group, Warburtons and VOW.

It has another 120,000sq ft building at the site, which became vacant when VOW relocated to a neighbouring 250,000 sq ft ProLogis unit, and it is talking to prospective tenants.

ProLogis believes that one of Yorkshire's biggest attractions is the help provided by the region's local councils and economic development agencies, which are keen to regenerate their areas and create new jobs.

"Bradford as a city did all the right things," said Mr Sarjant. "They were very supportive of the scale of the project and helped it reach fulfilment. Their support was really helpful."

Delivering the goods

Since the start of 2010, ProLogis has signed up two million sq ft of distribution facilities in the UK.

The trend is set to continue, but the company is not predicting the return of speculative development – which was the norm before the credit crisis – in the near future.

Instead, in response to changing market conditions, it has put in place a flexible development strategy that means it can build distribution facilities to meet customers' precise requirements.

This approach is proving a success and the company has confirmed build-to-suit deals of over one million sq ft so far this year.