Sainsbury’s seeking sublet on Midlands distribution centre
Sainsbury’s is seeking an occupier to sublet or assign its 673,000 ft2 distribution centre to in Rugby, West Midlands only two years after taking the space.
By Liza Helps, Property Editor, Logistics Matters
THE RETAILER is thought to be transferring its operations to Iron Mountain’s Rugby campus at Symmetry Park Rugby.
It took the refurbished space on a 10 year lease with five year break from Sunrise Real Estate in 2023 at a rent thought to be just shy of £9 per ft2. It is now seeking a sub let to 2028 at a rent in the region of £9.50 per ft2 or as an alternative the retailer will take an assignment of the whole expiring July 2033 with the benefit of a tenants only break option in July 2028.
The property formerly occupied by The Gap totals 673,270 ft2 and consists of a 625,364 ft2 warehouse with 12m eaves, 40 dock and two level loading doors, partial racking, fire wall and 4MVA power. The warehouse is served by two 40m yards and there is parking for up to 139 HGVs and 239 cars on the 35 acre plot.
The Grade A two-offices total 31,336 ft2 and there is a further hub office of 4,123 ft2 with LED lighting throughout. The building has a BREEAM very Good and ECP A rating.
Racking is included with spaces for 47,034 pallets.
In 2024 Sainsbury’s announced that it was planning to invest £220m back into its logistics network over the next three years, modernising and bringing advanced technology to its operations, upgrading and reducing the carbon footprint of its fleet, expanding capacity in key categories, and improving its fulfilment proposition. This investment would also support delivery of Sainsbury’s carbon reduction targets by 2035.
It also sought to move to three dedicated partnerships across transport; food; general merchandise & clothing by the end of 2024, instead of multiple different contracts across the network. These network-wide changes were set to allow Sainsbury’s to operate at a national level for the first time, as well as making best use of its partners’ expertise to provide better service and availability for customers, drive innovation and facilitate the sharing of industry best practice.
DHL ran the operations at the Rugby DC.
Letting agent is Cushman & Wakefield
