Davies Turner is making excellent progress with its multimillion pound investment at Central Park at Avonmouth, Bristol where its new Distribution Centre (DC) is taking shape and is on course to open next month.
Following the purchase of its second freehold site in Avonmouth last June, the company is looking forward to completion and commissioning of its new 150,000 sq ft (14,000 sqm) logistics hub, equipped with 60 ft (18 m) high racking for pallet storage.
There are high hopes for the new logistics hub. Together with Davies Turner’s existing Bristol premises, the new facility will offer logistics warehousing, as well as multi-storey mezzanines suitable for the sortation, rework and fulfilment services required for the company’s growing logistics services for e-commerce and online retail business.
The purpose-built facility will be completed some nine years after Davies Turner constructed the first major addition to its original freight forwarding and logistics branch at Bristol.
Davies Turner chairman, Philip Stephenson explained: “We were attracted by the strategic location next to the M49, close to where the M4 and M5 intersect and near both Severn River bridges. The business park will have its own junction on the M49 and is even rail-connected.
“Our Bristol location, which also houses our subsidiary, Davies Turner Air Cargo, has had outstanding success in recent years and expanded rapidly in co-operation with our European partners and with those in the wider world markets including North America, the Middle and Far East, and Australasia.
The company’s existing freight hub is close by and will operate in tandem with the new facility, with each site delivering complementary supply chain solutions.
“This cluster-based approach will allow us to pool our local management and labour resources. It represents a much-needed expansion of capacity serving our customers in the UK’s West Country and South Wales.”
Bristol is one of Davies Turner’s key multimodal freight hubs, with satellite branches in Bridgend and Plymouth. The region also works with the rest of the company’s network with premises of equal importance at Birmingham, Dartford, Heathrow, Manchester and Cumbernauld in Scotland, as well as Dublin in Ireland – with other smaller branches supporting them.
Looking to the future, the company has bought enough land at Central Park to develop a second warehouse on the same site capable of adding at least another 130,000 sq ft (12,000 sq m) as business expands again, following the pattern set at its other regional distribution centres over the last 25 years. One advantage of this phased construction is that the second building can if necessary be designed for a specific customer, allowing for a bespoke layout and specialist automation.
