Warburtons
Warburtons is the UK’s leading independent baker and turns out over 37million loaves of bread from its Yorkshire bakery alone.
In June 2007, they commenced a search in East Yorkshire for a new local distribution depot to replace the existing facility at Gilberdyke and provide a new base for the 42 staff employed in the locality.
On 14th July 2008, just 13 months later, they moved into a new facility, designed and built to meet their exact requirements by Horncastle on Ozone, Howden.
Ian Hodges, Director of Horncastle comments “Warburtons are a perfect customer, they have a very professional approach, are well organised and very decisive. Having commissioned several other local distribution depots in the Yorkshire region in recent years, they knew what they wanted. Several members of our Professional Team had also worked on one of their other projects and as such, they were able to bring their own knowledge and expertise to this project”.
When Warburtons were looking for a new space they needed somewhere with capacity for future expansion. Horncastle were chosen as they were able to offer this as an integral part of their proposed design.
As well as addressing this fundamental need, Horncastle’s Ozone site was then selected by Warburtons because of the proximity to the M62, and the local and regional road network. The facility is completely bespoke and the building to site ratio is unusually low at only 16%, to provide sufficient external areas for parking a large fleet of delivery vehicles together with the scope for expansion.
These criteria were critical and added considerable cost to the project, which in turn proved a commercial challenge for Horncastle to deliver a turnkey solution at a rental to fit with Warburtons budget. Despite this the design and development process, together with a negotiation of lease terms was completed in just under 8 weeks and solicitors were instructed on legal documentation.
Horncastle also used its considerable local knowledge and understanding of local planning networks to make the project happen. Although the plot was serviced with infrastructure and had full planning permission for a distribution unit of 35,000sqft, a new planning application had to be prepared and submitted to East Riding of Yorkshire Council for the bespoke facility.
Through close liaison with the economic and planning team at ERYC, the planning permission was granted in December 2007. In the interim period and in parallel with the planning process, the project was tendered and a full package of legal documentation agreed and executed between the parties including an Agreement to Lease, Warranties and Appointments and the Building Contract and Bond.
Building work commenced in early January and was completed on programme on 14th July 2008.
During the build programme, minor variations requested by Warburtons were immediately incorporated and in addition they were given early access for their team to fit IT equipment, telecoms, CCTV and security systems, together with office furniture and equipment to enable the facility to be fully commissioned for the date of handover.
Ian Hodges of Horncastle comments “We take great care in the selection of our sites and the design and planning of our developments. Going forward, we believe they will out perform the market and for this reason, we like to retain an interest by holding investments where possible. In this particular case, we have retained the freehold investment in the Warburtons development and added it to our portfolio of investment properties”.
Warburtons were delighted with their final space and with the fact they chose Horncastle to make that happen.
