Expansion go-ahead safeguards 750 jobs (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Expansion go-ahead safeguards 750 jobs

10:20am Tuesday 31st January 2012 in News By Simon Moss

Cllr Paul Harvery

ONE of Basingstoke’s biggest employers will spend an estimated £100million extending and developing its distribution centre in the town after being given the green light by borough bosses.

Sainsbury’s has been granted planning permission by Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council to modernise its existing depot at Houndmills Road, Houndmills.

The decision has secured the future of 750 local jobs and has been hailed great news at a time when a host of other businesses have opted to leave the town due to the economic downturn.

As exclusively revealed by The Gazette last year, Sainsbury’s bought 10 acres of land from neighbouring Linde Material Handling.

The supermarket firm will now knock down the existing buildings on both sites and replace them with a state-of-the-art storage and distribution warehouse, which will measure a total of 63,000 square metres. This will increase the size of the current depot by 50 per cent.

The site will remain open during its redevelopment, which will be phased so the existing depot buildings will be demolished last.

The depot, which has operated for almost 50 years, serves supermarket stores from Bournemouth and Swindon to Crawley and Oxford.

In 2006, the depot’s future in the town was under threat due to high running costs. This led to more than 100 redundancies at the site – but the future of the existing employees is now secure.

Councillor Paul Harvey, borough Labour member for Norden ward, said: “This is brilliant news considering the amount of firms we have lost, and jobs we have lost, in Basingstoke over the last 18 months.

“To see a company like Sainsbury’s commit to hundreds of jobs in Basingstoke is a great thing. The town needs more and more businesses like Sainsbury’s to be part of its future.”

A statement from Sainsbury’s said: “Sainsbury’s is pleased to confirm that planning permission to redevelop and improve the existing distribution centre at Houndmills industrial estate has been granted.

“There is a proposal for the existing building, from which Sainsbury’s has been operating for nearly 50 years, to be redeveloped to provide a modern, purpose-built depot that will improve the efficiency of Sainsbury’s distribution operations in the South East.

“Sainsbury’s is currently developing the construction proposals and will update the local community and neighbouring businesses at Houndmills in the near future.”