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Davies Turner hits the heights in Bristol

[ May 23, 2018   //   ]

Independent freight forwarder Davies Turner has fully opened its new multi-user distribution centre  near Avonmouth, Bristol.
The 150,000sq ft building at Western Approach has a high bay fully racked area, and with an eaves height of 19 metres, is one of the highest in Europe for very narrow aisle (VNA) forklift operations. The site can hold 27,000 standard pallets and four mezzanine floors offer space for sorting, rework, and fulfilment services.
Access to the warehouse is through 18 loading docks plus a separate drive-in ramp at one end and an extra wide door at the other for out-of-gauge freight, which sits under a large canopy where double-decker pallet trailers can also be loaded. The site has been fully secured with palisade fencing and barriers.

The site is within a 10 minute drive of Davies Turner’s existing Western Freight Terminal. The new DC will shortly benefit from direct motorway access thanks to the new junction currently under construction on the M49.
Bristol is one of Davies Turner’s key multimodal freight hubs, with satellite branches in Bridgend, Plymouth and Southampton. The region also works with the rest of the company’s network centred on its RDCs at Birmingham, Dartford, Heathrow, Manchester and Cumbernauld in Scotland, as well as Dublin in Ireland – with another 14 smaller branches supporting them.
The company has bought enough land (12 acres at Central Park to develop a second warehouse on the same site capable of adding at least another 121,000 sq ft (11,250 sq m).
One advantage of this phased construction is that the second building can, if necessary, be designed for a specific customer, allowing for a bespoke layout and specialist automation.
Davies Turner chairman, Philip Stephenson said: “Our Bristol regional HQ which also houses Davies Turner Air Cargo, has had outstanding success and is expanding rapidly in co-operation with our European partners plus the main existing and emerging markets worldwide.
“The company already operates other warehouses nearby, with each site delivering complementary supply chain solutions. This cluster-based approach based on our freehold sites will allow us to pool our local management and labour resources. It represents a much-needed expansion of capacity serving our customers nationwide as well as in South Wales and the West Country.”

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