The biggest warehouse deal in years at Cabot Park, Avonmouth, has been signed off by Colliers International with joint agent GVA. Acting on behalf of Standard Life they achieved a rent of £6 per sq ft on a new 15-year lease for Yankee Candle at the 170,000 sq ft 4mation unit, which has been vacant for two years.
Tim Davies at Colliers said: “This deal will reinvigorate industrial take up in the West which has been increasingly dominated by smaller deals in the 5-10,000 sq ft category.
“Avonmouth is one of the leading distribution hubs in the country ticking all the boxes for national firms looking to re-locate. We are seeing many national firms – especially in the expanding e-retailing market – returning to the industrial sector to ensure they have adequate logistical support to deal with a widely forecast return of consumer confidence.”
Major manufacturing and distribution occupiers in Avonmouth include Robert Wiseman Dairies, Superdrug, Honda, Kuehne & Nagel, Accolade Wines, John Lewis, Avon & Somerset Police and DSV.
Paul Hobbs of GVA said: “Remarkably, this was one of only two newly built units standing over 20,000 sq ft south of Birmingham. With this building committed, we all hope that the outcome will be a resurgence of the design and build market offering opportunities for many supply businesses in this region.
“Severnside is a radically different place from 10 years ago and will be a major development hotspot for the UK in the next five years.”
Yankee Candle – who were advised by Williams Gunter Hardwick – is the world’s leading manufacturer of home fragrancing products with specialist knowledge of the retail sale of its products both in store and online. Malcolm Gunter said: “The fact Yankee Candle is more than doubling the floorspace in its current North Bristol base speaks for itself. It is a very successful company and a large part of its business is online.”
Yankee Candle will use the Avonmouth base as its national distribution centre and is planning to add a further 7,500 sq ft to the existing 6,000 sq ft of office space.
4mation is strategically located less than two miles from Junction 18/18a of the M5/M49 and 10 miles from the M4/M5 interchange giving easy access to key markets between London, Wales, Birmingham and the South West.
Pictured left to right: Tim Davies of Colliers, Clive Harper MD of Yankee Candle and Malcolm Gunter from Williams Gunter Hardwick
