Westcoast plans 'significant expansion' with new warehouse

New facility is 'significantly bigger' than distie's other warehouses, according to MD Alex Tatham

Westcoast has massively expanded its operational capacity with a new warehouse in Hampshire.

The new building in Andover is 340,000 sq ft, nearly three times the size of the distie's other warehouses in Theale and Milton Keynes which stand at 120,000 sq ft each, according to MD Alex Tatham.

"This is our biggest single facility, and is significantly bigger than our facilities in Theale and Milton Keynes," he told CRN. "It has 62,000 pallet locations."

Westcoast's board is still in the process of deciding what will be held in the new warehouse, but Tatham expects that a number of the distributor's subsidiary warehouses will be bundled into the new facility. He also expects it to hold print hardware.

Westcoast has been an advocate of stockpiling in preparation for a no-deal Brexit in the past few months, but Tatham said that Brexit played no role in the distie's new warehouse.

"We were always looking for more space - Brexit is ancillary to it," he stated. "It's in response to the overall growth we have in the market. It will potentially help - depending on when Brexit is."

The Andover facility is around an hour's drive from Westcoast's Theale HQ, which played a factor in the decision to lease the warehouse, according to Tatham. He also expects it to provide a significant number of jobs to the locality.

"This is a great testament to the investment that the channel is making," he added. "This is a British company that is investing in our growth - Brexit or no Brexit."

Andy Newberry, Westcoast's operations director, said: "This new space will ensure our fast-growing business will not be constrained by capacity, as well as provide some consolidation of third-party warehouses.

"In addition, it will give the business some further room to provide ever more logistics services to a wide range of customers - from retail to managed print, IT resellers to system integrators."