Member Article

Europa makes biggest single investment in new head office

Europa Worldwide Logistics, one of the UK’s leading privately owned transport companies, has announced massive investment by signing a deal on a new head office facility and South of England Hub at Prologis Park in Littlebrook, Dartford.

Europa has signed a lease agreement with Prologis, the leading global owner, operator and developer of industrial real estate, for the new 262,500 sq ft facility which will be built to meet the company’s exact requirements.

Construction will start on site in early summer 2014, with a target to be operational in spring 2015. At this time, all 230 Europa staff based at the existing head office in Erith will move to Littlebrook.

Europa will benefit from a brand new state-of-the-art facility specifically designed to support Europa’s expanding operations on this sought after site. Littlebrook will become Europa’s new Southern hub complementing its northern hub at Prologis Park Midpoint in the West Midlands.

Andrew Baxter, managing director of Europa, commented: “This move marks the biggest single investment that the company has ever made, and is an exciting next step for the business. The new site will increase our capacity to handle logistics contracts. This is an area of the business that has grown considerably in recent years. A large part of our business is providing storage and pick and pack services to companies selling goods over the internet. As you can imagine, this sector has grown massively.

“Littlebrook is in an ideal location for our business, allowing easy access to continental Europe as well as to the rest of southern England,” said Andrew Baxter, who acquired the company in August 2013. “We have worked closely with Prologis to design a state-of-the-art facility that will increase our capacity and help us to provide the best possible service to our customers.

The new facility has been designed to achieve a minimum BREAAM 2011 ‘very good’ accreditation and the best EPC rating possible for its size.

Europa, under previous ownership had been considering the feasibility of a move onto this site for sometime. “We have been working with Europa for a number of years and it is very encouraging that the company has chosen to stay with Prologis,” said Andrew Griffiths, managing director of Prologis UK.

“We are pleased that we are able to offer Europa this strategically located site on a build-to-suit basis for a facility that has been designed to meet the company’s exact requirements. This transaction reflects the short supply of good quality standing stock in the UK market.”

Europa’s expansion follows its acquisition in August 2013 by Andrew Baxter formerly of RH Group. As part of the acquisition he announced his plans for significant investment in the business and maximising its potential. Europa is expecting to add a number of additional routes throughout 2014 and it also has plans to open another branch in the east midlands area to further strengthen its distribution infrastructure. This will strengthen Europa’s aim to be internationally recognised as one of Europe’s finest freight forwarders.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Kathryn Greenwood .