Harworth Group plc has sold 3.4 acres of engineered land to Lidl (UK) for the retailer to build a brand new store in Doncaster, as part of its ongoing expansion ambitions within the UK.
Key points:
- Harworth Group plc has sold 3.4 acres of land at its Torne Park development in Doncaster to Lidl (UK)
- Lidl (UK) will build a 1,325m² supermarket, with plans to create up to 40 new jobs
- Torne Park development was unlocked by the construction of ‘Great Yorkshire Way’ – a new link road for Doncaster which has also opened up Verdion’s iPort and slashed journey times to Doncaster Sheffield Airport
- This deal is the second between Harworth and Lidl in recent months, following December’s sale of 43.7 acres at Logistics North in Bolton for Lidl (UK) to build a new North West Regional Distribution Centre
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The store will be located on Heatherfields Crescent at Harworth’s planned 1,200 home Torne Park development and represents another multi-million pound investment in the local area by Lidl. This follows the start of construction last month of a new £70 million Regional Distribution Centre at the neighbouring iPort development, one of the UK’s largest logistics developments.
The new sustainable store will include a 1,325m² sales area within an overall development area of 13,936m², with plans to create up to 40 new jobs. The supermarket will boast state-of-the-art facilities including an instore bakery, longer-style tills with dual packing facilities, customer toilets and ample parking for both cars and bicycles.
Lidl (UK)’s decision to invest follows Torne Park’s development being unlocked by the completion in February 2016 of Great Yorkshire Way – the £56m link road funded by a range of public and private partners, including Harworth. Harworth has spent the past 24 months undertaking land remediation and infrastructure works for the first phase of development on the site which will deliver an initial 166 new homes through two housebuilders – Harron Homes and Taylor Wimpey.
The deal is the second between the companies in recent months. In December, Harworth sold 43.7 acres at its flagship Logistics North development in Bolton for £22.5m for the company to setup its regional distribution headquarters.
Duncan Armstrong-Payne, Associate Director of Major Projects at Harworth Group plc, added: “We’re delighted to welcome Lidl to our Torne Park development. With housebuilding progressing well, the neighbouring iPort going from strength-to-strength and increasing numbers of drivers using Great Yorkshire Way, we’re confident that Lidl’s new store will be highly successful.”
Lidl UK’s Regional Head of Property, Graham Burr commented: “We are delighted to be opening a new store in Rossington, which marks another milestone in our ambitious store expansion programme. We’ve seen incredible demand for Lidl stores across the country and look forward to offering our quality products and great value to shoppers in and around Doncaster.
“We are firmly committed to helping boost the local economy by creating new jobs and working with local suppliers in the construction of the new store.”
The planned store in Rossington will add to Lidl’s existing store portfolio of 670, and will form part of the company’s growth plans which aim to see this figure increase to 1,500 in the future.