Prime Minister visits to welcome £200 million investment by Marks & Spencer to build new distribution centre at London Gateway
- 700 new jobs for South Essex
- Major efficiencies in M&S supply chain to be achieved by shipping to new DP World London Gateway super-port, including cost and fuel reduction
- 900,000 sq ft Marks & Spencer distribution centre to be located at London Gateway Logistics Park
- Global shippers and cargo owners meet at Britain’s new international trade hub to discuss global trade ahead of G8
10 June 2013 - Marks & Spencer (M&S) and DP World London Gateway today jointly announce that M&S will build a major new distribution centre at the new deep-sea container port and logistics park, which opens later this year on the Thames in South Essex, just 25 miles from central London.
Locating M&S’ new distribution centre at Britain’s new global shipping gateway means the company will move millions of products directly from ships to the company’s hi-tech warehousing facility at the adjacent London Gateway Logistics Park. London Gateway’s south east location gives M&S closer access to key UK cities which means goods will not travel as far to reach consumers. This model will be both cost effective for M&S and remove millions of lorry miles from UK roads along with thousands of tonnes of CO2.
As part of its £200 million investment at DP World’s London Gateway, M&S will create approximately 700 jobs; there will also be hundreds of additional workers employed in the construction phase.
The announcement, which marks a major milestone in the development of the 1,500-acre site, was welcomed by Prime Minister David Cameron, who visited DP World London Gateway this morning and discussed global trade with an audience of 150 business leaders.
Marc Bolland, Chief Executive of Marks & Spencer, said: “London Gateway will become our third large distribution centre in the UK as we transform our logistics operations into a modern and agile supply chain, fit for the future of M&S. As we become an international, multichannel retailer, London Gateway will help us become more efficient by cutting costs and locating our supply chain closer to our stores and our international markets. It will also help us deliver against our Plan A objectives by removing road miles and emissions from our network.”
His Excellency Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Chairman DP World, said: “I’m delighted to be able to welcome the Prime Minister and Marc Bolland to DP World London Gateway. We are proud to be able to contribute to the UK economy by providing a more efficient and more reliable global supply chain infrastructure, to the benefit of British business and British consumers. This is a great place and a great time to be talking about global trade.”
Mohammed Sharaf, Group CEO, DP World, said: “Marks & Spencer is a world renowned and trusted brand that is today setting the pace for other UK businesses, leading the way in taking advantage of the benefits of new infrastructure and an outstanding location. We are very pleased to welcome them as the first tenant at our London Gateway Logistics Park.”
Simon Moore, CEO, DP World London Gateway, said: “Marks & Spencer will have a world-class distribution centre connected to a world-class deep-sea port providing more reliability and efficiency for its business. By bringing ships carrying millions of products closer to the point of consumption we will help M&S to shorten its supply chain. We will also support Marks and Spencer’s exports from London Gateway. We look forward to working alongside them now and in the many years to follow.”
Key facts:
- London Gateway port is set to open in Q4 this year.
- Marks & Spencer is one of the UK’s leading multi-channel retailers with 766 stores in the UK and 420 international stores and nine dedicated international websites in over 50 territories in Europe, the Middle East and Asia
- The planned 900,000 sq ft distribution centre will be used to store clothing, home and gifts before they are transported to UK and international M&S stores
- M&S is planning to use the rail network being built at London Gateway, which will link to the rail terminal at the M&S distribution centre in Castle Donington
- Subject to planning, Marks & Spencer will begin construction of the new facility in 2014.
- At full development, London Gateway port will provide 3.5m teu capacity and will allow the world’s largest ships to call just 25 miles from the centre of London
While M&S is not the biggest user of containers in the world, its annual traffic is growing as its move into overseas markets gathers momentum. Currently, the UK retailer’s volumes amount to about 37,000teu a year.
http://www.porttechnology.org/news/marks_spencer_to_build_200_million_distribution_centre_at_dp_world_london_g
One company signs up and the rest will follow,it all sounds rather impressive.I hope felixstowe and Southampton are ready because one of these ports is really going to feel the effect from this new port.
ReplyDeletei think southampton will lose its mojo felixstowe is safe
DeleteExtra transit time up the Thames and the M25 to navigate? Have they really thought this through?
ReplyDeleteLocal news reports its going to reduce the time from container to store from three weeks to three days,that's a massive difference and something other companies will look at. I guess time will tell but it's worrying times for dock workers with so much extra container capacity available but no new contracts and shipping lines to fill it. It's going to be a case of one ports gain is another ports loss and with that goes jobs.
ReplyDeleteDp world is an arab based company offering no union recognition to it's employees in gateway and a poor wage structure to go with it !stinks! I hope the likes of m&s no what sort of port they are heading to.....full of empty promises!
ReplyDeleteCould not have put that better myself.........superb.
ReplyDeleterumour has it there is a problem with the dredge the area is constantly silting up around the Gateway
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately the likes of M&S and other big companies don't care who owns what port and how they treat there employees all they worry about is cost.
ReplyDeleteBut the level of service that will be attained in a non union port may over shadow the cost! One of gateways main selling points apparently is that they have no history within its work force. ..its that history that is producing real high quality performance in the port of Southampton!
ReplyDeletebut still no shipping lines. If M&S want all there goods to go through London gateway but the shipping lines don't want to use that route who has the final say
ReplyDelete