HoF lays out plan for new distribution hub in Peterborough

British department store group House of Fraser has announced plans for the development of a new 750,000 square foot distribution hub on the edge of Peterborough to support the ongoing growth of its e-commerce business. If all plans go through, the new hub is expected to create between 500 and 1,000 new local jobs.

"House of Fraser has seen phenomenal growth of its ecommerce business in recent years and has consistently delivered a strong financial performance, testament to the strength of our truly multi channel business," commented Nigel Oddy, CEO of House of Fraser. "As a result of this growth, we need additional warehouse capacity to meet future supply chain needs and to meet demand for products from our customers. After an extensive site search for an additional facility across the Midlands, we have submitted a planning application to develop a site in the Gateway Peterborough development."

HoF submitted its planning application to the Peterborough City Council on Thursday as it aims to develop its hub at a site situated by the A1(M) junction and the A6605. Part of the Gateway Peterborough development (‘Gateway’), the site already benefits from outline consent for up to 5 million square feet of industrial and distribution buildings. The site is said to be ideally located to fulfill all the needs of House of Fraser, as it is in close proximity to London.

"We are delighted to be working with Peterborough City Council on our application for a new state-of-the-art distribution hub in Peterborough and will be working closely with the local authority to ensure our proposals deliver on promises made at the outline stage of jobs, growth and investment in the local economy," added Ray Kavanagh, Executive Director of Commercial & Logistics of House of Fraser. "Peterborough is an established distribution and manufacturing location and is ideally situated for our needs."

"We look forward to sharing more information with the local community in due course, and we will continue to update all our employees and other stakeholders, as appropriate, throughout this process." The new hub will also strengthen HoF's other two existing distribution centres, located in Wellingborough and Milton Keynes, in which HOF has invested in "significantly" over the past years. Together with the respective logistics providers they play a vital role in fulfilling the department store group's warehouse capacity needs.

"This announcement is great news for Peterborough's economy and is a huge vote of confidence in our city," stressed Councillor John Holdich, Leader of Peterborough City Council. "In the past three years Peterborough businesses have added almost 7,000 jobs to our economy and this commitment by one of the best known high street names to create an additional 500 to 1,000 jobs is fantastic. It's a further boost to our private sector jobs market, which is now one of the most buoyant in the country, and will help push our unemployment figures even further below the national average."

News of the new distribution hub comes not long after HoF announced record sales for the 52 weeks to January 30, 2016 and a return to profit. House of Fraser reported an ongoing growth of online sales, which increased 26.8 percent on a like-for-like 52 week basis, that represented 18.9 percent of total sales.