Warwickshire News Mine

Today Ocado officially signed a deal which will create up to 2,000 jobs in the area after North Warwickshire Borough Council rubber stamped outline planning consent for a 124-acre extension to the Birch Coppice site, in Dordon, last month.

The online supermarket, which delivers directly to the kitchen table, and landowner IM Properties have now submitted a detailed ‘reserve matters’ planning application for the 35-acre site.

The recent stock-market floatation of Ocado will help finance the hi-tech centralised distribution facility which will process approximately 180,000 customer orders per week at its eventual, maximum capacity.

Cllr Alan Cockburn, Warwickshire County Council’s Portfolio holder for Environment and Economy, said: “This is a welcome investment in North Warwickshire and we are delighted to see major players like Ocado are coming to Birch Coppice.

"The West Midlands has been hit hard by the economic downturn, but investments of this scale provide a great boost to the local economy and demonstrate that the county continues to be a prime location for business.”

The development plot – the size of 17 football pitches – is thought to be worth around £500,000 per acre. The state of the art warehousing and distribution building will be 350,000 sq ft.

Birch Coppice, located on the A5 trunk road half a mile from junction 10 of the M42 motorway, was the preferred site for Ocado over five other sites including the former Peugeot vehicle assembly plant at Ryton, near Rugby, and a development site close to the M69 motorway in Hinckley, Leicestershire.

Preparatory work on site to produce development plateaus is scheduled to commence immediately. The Ocado complex is due for completion towards the end of 2012.

Warwick-based IM Properties secured the deal based on their track record of delivering the award-winning 148-acre first phase of Birch Coppice development, which is home to blue chip occupiers such as UPS, Ceva, Severn Trent and Birmingham Intermodal Freight Terminal.

A sum of money allocated by IM Properties will be used to deliver a pre-employment training and skills development programme called North Warwickshire Works. 

The idea is to raise awareness of new employment opportunities and to improve skills levels amongst local residents to ensure they are ‘work ready’ for the new jobs created.

Cllr Ray Sweet, the Ward County Councillor for Birch Coppice, added: “We are really excited about North Warwickshire Works. Warwickshire County Council has set up a partnership with the Borough Council, Jobcentre plus, Connexions, the third sector and local training agencies, to ensure we use funding effectively to help develop the potential of local people to get better jobs and increase their skills.”

Link to WCC