Fowler Welch-Coolchain staff in Heywood move
FOWLER Welch-Coolchain, part of Jet2.com owner Dart Group, is to close its Stockport base and transfer more than 200 staff to a newly acquired 500,000 sq ft warehouse in Heywood.
The chilled and ambient distribution and logistics business, headquartered in Lincolnshire, has bought the distribution centre and warehouse at Heywood Distribution Park for an undisclosed sum.
It plans to move 210 staff from an existing 180,000 sq ft leased base in Stockport to the new Heywood centre, which it said would “support its continued expansion in the North West”.
The site, which has a 55,000 pallet capacity, will double the size of Fowler Welch-Coolchain’s national distribution centre footprint to more than 1million sq ft, according to the company, although the Stockport site will be closed.
Lawrence Shey, business development manager for the company, told TheBusinessDesk the company did plan to take on additional staff at the Heywood centre, but added it was too soon to give exact figures.
He said the acquisition would complete this week but added that additional works were required to bring the warehouse up to company specification. These are expected to be completed by September.
Meanwhile, parent company Dart Group said that disruption caused by the Icelandic volcano has dented profits by £2.8m.
The group said in a pre-close trading update that it had been forced to cancel more than 400 flights to date and had incurred additional costs associated with providing alternative transportation to repatriate its Jet2.com and Jet2holiday.com passengers.
It said that should disruption continue the subsequent profit impact would be around £350,000 a day.
However, it added that the board was comfortable that the group has sufficient financial resources to withstand “a considerable period of disruption”.
Dart Group said: “Overall, as a result of continued satisfactory trading performance in challenging market conditions, the board expects the group’s full year results for the financial year ended to be in line with market expectations. Cash flow generation remains strong.”
