Member Article

M&S to create 300 Sheffield jobs

Marks & Spencer, the clothing and food retailer, has taken warehouse space totalling 647,000 sq ft in a move set to create more than 300 jobs.

The retailer will let two adjacent warehouses at Sheffield International Rail Freight Terminal. The property is located off the M1, inside the Sheffield City Region Enterprise Zone and includes direct rail access.

M&S will be transferring the visual merchandise, store equipment and home furniture from its 1.1 million sq ft distribution centre in Bradford to the Sheffield facility as part of a new logistics network project. It is anticipated that more than 300 jobs will be created when the distribution centre is open. Bradford will not close and no jobs will be cut, but will be geared towards other areas of the business.

Cllr Julie Dore, Leader of Sheffield City Council said: “This is just another example of confidence in Sheffield. More than 300 jobs for people across the city region is great news.

“Sheffield is at the heart of the UK and is ideally located to provide businesses with a central point to distribute across the country. We are committed to supporting business in Sheffield, to bringing new jobs and opportunities for local people.”

Today’s announcement is one of a number of recent investment coups for Sheffield. Only last week Ark Home Healthcare announced that it would be bringing 100 jobs to the city with its new HQ, and the Business Bank a further 100, while the new Aldi distribution centre in Goldthorpe has been reported to bring another 400 jobs to Sheffield and the City Region.

Other developments have already been announced in the Sheffield area. Last week Ark Home Healthcare announced that it would be bringing 100 jobs to the city with its new HQ, and the Business Bank a further 100. While the new Aldi distribution centre in Goldthorpe will bring another 400 jobs to Sheffield City Region.

James Newman, Chairman of the Sheffield City Region Local Enterprise Partnership, said: “The Local Enterprise Partnership looks forward to welcoming Marks and Spencer to the Sheffield City Region’s growing Enterprise Zone.

“The Sheffield City Region continues to be the number one logistics choice for market leaders and M&S will be joining the likes of Amazon, Next, DHL and many others.

“The UK’s top businesses are choosing to come here because we are perfectly located at the heart of the UK. Logistics experts agree that our City Region has excellent ‘multimodal access’ – with excellent rail links to all ports and the rest of the UK, and direct access to the strategic highway network of the A1, M1 and M18 and further afield the M62.

“The M&S news will further boost our growing logistics sector, which already has an economic output of £930 million and employs 31,000 people in the Sheffield City Region.

“Our logistics sector has some of the highest levels of forecast employment growth and creates hundreds of new jobs every year in the Sheffield City Region.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .