Lidl has confirmed plans that it is to build a West Midlands distribution centre at Opus Land and St Francis’s Opus Blueprint scheme in Wednesbury near Junction 9 of the M6 motorway – it’s eleventh in the UK.
The low cost retailer has bought the 22 acre site and plans to develop a 450,000 sq ft facility in conjunction with developer Opus Land. This will be its second in the region. The facility which is expected to employ up to 500 will be run on a 24/7 three shift system. 365 days a year.
Ingo Fischer of Lidl UK said: “The new Lidl warehouse in Wednesbury will help service our stores in the West Midlands region as our expansion across the UK continues. We are looking forward to offering our fantastic value and quality products to more customers, as well as bringing new jobs and investment to the area in the not-too-distant future.”
Gareth Williams, director at St Francis Group said: “We’ve always known Opus Blueprint is an excellent site with fantastic potential. It was always our intention to attract a single large user so we couldn’t be happier to see Lidl move onto the site. This deal will provide Lidl with a great location for its distribution centre which in turn will help boost the economy in Sandwell.”
Lidl has been operating in the UK since 1994, growing so that today it has more than 600 stores. It has ambitious plans to expand its store network. It is looking for prominent sites in town, district, edge of centre or out of town locations, unit sizes are flexible on design and scale between 8,000 and 19,000 sq ft.
The site already has outline planning for a 475,000 sq ft warehouse and detailed plans are expected to go before the council shortly.
Agents on the distribution centre scheme are JLL DTZ and Cushman & Wakefield.
