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Wednesday, January 14, 2015

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It’s a jobs jamboree
Business is
booming in
Leicestershire –
creating
thousands of
new jobs in the
process. TOM
PEGDEN
reports here

EXPANDING Top left, clockwise The DPD complex, in Hinckley; Magna Park; the Everards site next to Fosse Park and the BT distribution centre, Magna Park

❝

Hinckley
gives us
significant scope
to expand our
capacity and allows us to stay
one step ahead of
our competitors

where it employs 100 people,
to a smaller site nearby.
Enderby-based Next will
close its two Fosse Park stores
after creating the three-storey
superstore on the neighbouring 13-acre site, known as
Castle Acres.
The fashion group said
about 500 staff would
relocate from the two stores
in Fosse Park, with up to 100
new jobs being created.
The other 600 jobs would
be created by other retailers
setting up at the new site.
Planning applications for
both the Castle Acres and
Soar Valley Way develop-

ments are due to be submitted to Blaby District Council.
If given the go-ahead, the
sites should be open by the
end of 2017.
In Hinckley, DPD – another
parcel company – is recruiting for 1,000 new posts at a
vast new parcel depot on a
32-acre site near the A5 and
M69.
DPD has spent £100 million
building the 360,000 sq ft
warehouse and is now recruiting parcel loaders, managers, vehicle maintenance
staff, HGV mechanics and security, admin and IT staff.
DPD chief executive Dwain

McDonald said: “Hinckley
gives us significant scope to
expand our capacity and
allows us to stay one step
ahead of the growth in the
online parcel market and our
competitors.”
The Hinckley depot will
increase the company’s
parcel capacity by more than
65 per cent as it seeks to take
a bigger share of the market.
It has already won contracts
to deliver parcels for John
Lewis and Marks & Spencer.
DPD employs more than
7,000 people in the UK, operating 3,000 vehicles from
more than 50 locations.

LDM-E01-S3 LM03

Dwain McDonald, DPD

There will be a further 500
construction jobs during the
building of the business park.
South of Leicester,
developers hope to create a
new shopping centre next to
Fosse Park, with 700 new
posts.
Between 20 and 30 stores
could be set up on land
currently occupied by
Everards Brewery, close to
junction 21 of the M1.
It would include a 90,000 sq
ft Next store selling fashion,
homeware and gardening
equipment.
Under the plan, Everards
would relocate its brewery,

1

THOUSANDS of new jobs are
being created in distribution,
warehousing, office work and
retail in the county.
A series of major developments will create more than
11,000 new posts over the
coming months and years.
Some 6,000 new jobs are
expected if plans for a big
expansion at Magna Park,
Lutterworth, get the
go-ahead.
Part of the expansion
involves existing tenant DHL
which wants to create 1,000
jobs in a new one million sq ft
warehouse.
Other existing tenants at
Magna Park, which employs
more than 9,000 workers,
include Argos, Asda, Honda,
Toyota, BT and Panasonic.
As reported in the Mercury,
revised plans for the expansion go on show to the public
on Friday.
Plans have also been drawn
up to for a multi-million
pound expansion of Watermead Business Park, in
Syston, creating 3,500 jobs.
Developers Raynsway
Estates have been given
permission to develop a 58acre site next to the Grand
Union Canal.
Under the plans, the former
quarry and farmland site, off
Wanlip Road, will see offices
developed, as well as light
industrial units, a hotel and
cafe, pub and restaurant.
Planning documents state:
“When developed, the
proposal will provide about
3,500 jobs, based on current
job density estimates and
depending on which development scenario is realised.”