ONLINE grocery and household retailer Ocado is expected to agree a multi-million pound deal on a new distribution hub near Tamworth within days.
The 35-acre site is on the Birch Coppice Business Park, south east of the Staffordshire town by Junction 10 of the M42, and will give the newly-floated company a foothold in the West Midlands.
The site is expected to be sold for around £16.5m. Ocado has previously submitted planning permission for a warehouse of 350,000 sq ft capable of processing up to 200,000 orders per week.
Ocado delivers food, clothes, garden and household goods for companies such as Waitrose which has stores in Lichfield and Harborne, in Birmingham, and its headquarters are in Hatfield, Hertfordshire.
Ocado’s finance director Andrew Bracey is reported as saying the company is delighted to be gaining a foothold in the West Midlands.
It is estimated that the depot would employ around 2,000 staff if the project went ahead.
Ocado was floated on the Stock Exchange last month and currently employs around 3,000 staff.
In 2008, the John Lewis Partnership agreed a five-year supply deal with Ocado which was replaced in May this year with a 10-year agreement which included the delivery of Waitrose food.
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