City Link takes 50,000 sq ft in Peterborough

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.businessweekly.co.uk/2010051 ... rough.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Express courier City Link is creating 125 jobs in Peterborough. Buoyed by an upsurge in business driven by internet sales, City Link has taken 50,000 sq ft on a 3.5 acre site at the Darlows Business Centre in Fengate.

Richard Jones, a director of joint agent for the scheme, Barker Storey Matthews, said the move was “great news” and would create 110 full time and 15 part time jobs.

City Link chose Peterborough as a strategic midpoint to its Cambridge and Lincolnshire operations but the depot will serve the whole of its rapidly-expanding East of England territory.

Tens of thousands of items a week will churn through the new Peterborough operation once it opens 24/7 in mid-June.

Recent commercial property deals in Peterborough are believed to have created around 2,000 jobs as the city benefits from a resurgence of the feelgood factor.

Richard Jones said: “We started seeing a pick up last September. January was quiet but we were so busy in February and March. Anecdotal evidence suggests that some companies were being held back irrationally. They needed to grow last year but all they were hearing was doom and gloom.

“Eventually, because they simply had to take on those extra five people or so, they had to make their move and were glad they did so. They grew despite the recession; it is all a question of confidence.”

The Darlows Business Centre has proved a magnet for growth. An acre of land was let to Atkins to facilitate a highways maintenance project. Marshall Motor Group has agreed a major renewal of significant space. BSM has agreed to let around 20,000 sq ft to a firm that specialises in hotel interiors.

Elsewhere in Peterborough the agent has two car sales firms looking at a site comprising two-thirds of an acre – and there are rumblings in the city’s property fraternity that a major contract could be signed this week on a one million sq ft deal.

[Lounge Lizard]

"Tens of thousands of items a week will churn through the new Peterborough operation once it opens 24/7 in mid-June."
CHURN -
• verb 1 agitate (milk or cream) in a churn to produce butter. 2 (with reference to liquid) move about vigorously. 3 (churn out) produce mechanically and in large quantities. 4 as adj. churned up upset or nervous.