Rapid growth sees Mitsubishi make a move

POWER generation firm Mitsubishi Power Systems Europe has relocated its Yorkshire premises after more than doubling its turnover in the last two years.

The firm, which now has a £120m turnover, has bought a 35,000 sq ft building at Navigation Park, off Lockside Road, in Hunslet, Leeds, for £2m to house its expanded service and parts facility.

MPSE, which was established in 2007, is involved in the design and procurement of gas and steam turbines as well as developing advanced energy generation in both the solar and wind powered sectors.

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It employs more than 500 staff in eight offices across Europe, including 50 in Leeds, and has more than doubled its space after outgrowing its previous 15,000 sq ft premises on South Accommodation Road in Leeds.

Juergen Richter, service director in the Leeds centre, said: “Our first office was designed to be a starter office but over the last two years we have taken on a lot more people. We had a big space problem because we were growing so quickly.”

He added: “The acquisition of this property will assist us in the expansion of our business and enables us to respond effectively to the needs of both our existing and future clients.

“With the ever-growing requirement to source more efficient means of power generation, MPSE needs to be able to offer our customers innovative alternatives for power generation as well as increased level of services and shorter response time.”

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The building has undergone a £300,000 refurbishment, following the acquisition, which includes new office space and a new workshop within the warehouse.

Mitsubishi was advised on the acquisition by the Leeds-based industrial property agent Gent Visick, while Knight Frank and Dove Haigh Phillips advised the vendor, Chromogene.

Andrew Gent, of Gent Visick, said: “MPSE had a number of specific requirements for their relocation not least being the availability of a high office content within the property.

“We were pleased that we were able to use our market knowledge to identify a range of options for MPSE to consider and then to negotiate the acquisition of this property on their behalf.”

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The refurbishment included a fit-out of 9,000 sq ft of office space. Bradford-based contractor PEC completed the final design and specification for the new offices, which included stripping out the space, electrical and mechanical installation, along with ceilings, partitions, flooring and furniture and external new windows. It also designed, manufactured and installed the new furniture.

Balbir S Panesar, managing director of PEC, said: “This was a very complex and extensive refit. The new office space incorporates state-of-the-art meeting room space with flexible walls, open-plan working with expansion planned in for a further 40 people. In addition, Mitsubishi staff have a new breakout space and shower facilities, which were priority in the initial design phase.

“Every aspect of the design has been demanding and executed to a specific building, always with staff in mind.”

MPSE is part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries which operates globally employing more than 60,000 staff and manufacturing everything from fuel cells through to super-tankers.

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Mr Richter said the company is continuing to expand in the future but the rate of growth depends on how quickly the business develops. “We have got a business plan and we expect to take on more staff but it depends on the development of the business. We are quite flexible,” he said.

The company joins engineering and manufacturing group Siemens – a rival company – at Navigation Park. Siemens invested an initial £1.2m in transferring its mechanical drives business from Bradford to the new premises earlier this year.

It said the move would enable the £15m operation to handle additional and bigger contracts, including work to support the group’s planned major offshore wind turbine manufacturing plant in Hull.

It followed Siemens’ 2005 acquisition of Flender’s gear and gear-motor business for 1.2bn euros.

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Siemens’ new, purpose-built 50,000 sq ft factory created 30 per cent more production space, increased height for 25-tonne cranes and room to optimise production cell layouts and materials handling flows.

Export orders are already being fulfilled for energy provider customers as far afield as China.

Intelligent drive systems from the division also power rail haulage and baggage handling at Heathrow, Gatwick and Munich airports.

The history of navigation park

Navigation Park is an industrial distribution site built in 2000 and developed by Commercial Development Projects, based in Elland, West Yorkshire.

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The site comprises five buildings, which total 167,500 sq ft. They have all been either sold or let to Mitsubishi, Siemens, Glyn Print Finishers, Glass Craft and City Link.

Commercial Development Projects, the development arm of the Marshall Group, was formed in 1968.

Specialising in acquiring sites for speculative development throughout the north of England, CDP have a land bank set aside for the continuing development of in-town retail, out-of-town retail, office, industrial and leisure development schemes.

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