Ocado opens East of England depot

Online Grocer Ocado has taken a 48,000 sq ft warehouse in Peterborough, which it will use as a depot to serve the East of England.

Unit 3 at Darlows Business Centre in Peterborough was formerly occupied by City Link and has been taken by Ocado on a 15-year lease.

Ocado, who are the world’s largest dedicated online grocery retailer, receive on average 167,000 orders a week and presently their closest distribution centre that services Peterborough and surrounding Cambridgeshire is located in Hatfield, nearly 65 miles away.

The new facility benefits from a good level of loading doors, 10m eaves and excellent road connections onto the A1139 Parkway, which provides dual carriageway access onto the A1.

Richard Jones, Director at Barker Storey Matthews said, “The letting has been in place for some time, however Ocado has been involved in an extensive fit-out of the property with the announcement delayed to coincide with the commencement of operations on site.”

“The site made an ideal location for a distribution centre due to its excellent road connectivity. The online grocery market is growing at an incredibly fast rate and this new strategically located distribution centre in Peterborough will increase Ocado’s reach and efficiency significantly.”

John Dadge, Director of Planning at Barker Storey Matthews added, “We would particularly like to praise Peterborough City Councils planning department for the swift resolution of planning matters. There were a number of issues that needed resolving at the last moment and Peterborough City Council pulled out all of the stops to ensure the deal was not delayed.”