Jaguar Land Rover set for further expansion in the West Midlands

VEHICLE manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover is set to create around 50 new jobs as part of its latest expansion in the West Midlands.

Planning consultants acting on behalf of commercial property firm Prologis have submitted details to Birmingham City Council for the extension of a massive warehousing unit at Prologis Park in Minworth. It is thought the company will use the facility to store parts for its vehicles.

The details came to light in a supporting statement to the application, submitted by Prologis’ agent, Nathaniel Lichfield & Partners.

The application is for a 164,000 sq ft extension to an existing 312,000 sq ft unit at Prologis Park, Midpoint Way.

JLR is understood to have been searching for a major facility close to its existing manufacturing plants at Castle Bromwich and Solihull for some time.

Details first emerged in October 2013, when it was reported that JLR had settled on the DC4 unit at the Midpoint Way site. At that stage the unit was just 312,000  sq ft, although there was scope for a smaller 164,000 sq ft unit (DC6) adjacent to the site.

Rather than build the separate unit, Prologis has applied for permission to extend the existing DC4 building to create a massive 470,000 sq ft storage facility. The application includes a gatehouse with associated service yard, access, parking, drainage and landscaping infrastructure and works.

In its supporting statement, NLP says: “This development is being proposed in response to the requirements of a specific tenant, one of the region’s most important industrial occupiers, Jaguar Land Rover, which has leased Unit DC4 as part of its storage and distribution operations. It also reflects market demand in the area for larger distribution units more generally.”

It said as the building would be used for storage/distribution purposes, it conformed with the council’s planning guidelines for encouraging the use of land for employment purposes.

It added that JLR wanted construction to start without any delays so its rapid expansion was not held up.

It is thought the new facility could create around 50 jobs, with the company moving in to the site in a series of phases.

JLR has been working closely with Prologis for some time and is also utilising space at the company’s site at Ryton for use as its new Special Vehicle Operations division.

It has also learned from experience that it is best to create additional capacity now rather than go to the time and expense of doing it later.

When it first announced plans for its new £500m engine manufacturing plant at the i54 site near Wolverhampton the scheme was half the size it is now. It decided that creating the additional capacity straight away would allow it to roll-out its engine programme much quicker and support ongoing expansion across the whole company.

The new storage facility will also support the lean manufacturing ethos adopted by JLR; as it is by most car companies. This enables a more efficient production process by not having factories clogged up with huge amounts of stock, preferring instead to have them stored nearby and brought into the factory as and when required.

Prologis Park Midpoint, which stretches across 65-acres, is home to Europa Worldwide Logistics, Kuehne+Nagel and The Pallet Network. The site lies to the north-east of Birmingham and benefits from easy access to the M6, M6 Toll and M42 – all vital links to Castle Bromwich, Solihull and to a lesser extent, Wolverhampton, home of the new engine plant.