Boohoo wins race for Arcadia's Daventry logistics hub

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Apr 9, 2021

Boohoo Group has won the battle to buy a key UK logistics site that became available on the collapse of Arcadia.

While JD Sports Fashion had been expected to snap up the Daventry site, Boohoo Group on Friday announced that “following exchange of contracts, it has agreed a long-term lease for a new warehouse in Daventry, due to become operational in the second quarter of the group’s financial year”.

A company spokesperson confirmed to Fashionnetwork.com that the site is the former Arcadia logistics hub.

The company said the site “will support the group’s expansion and adds capacity in addition to its existing facilities in Burnley, Sheffield and Wellingborough”. Combined, the four locations will give the group net sales capacity in excess of £4 billion.

Boohoo also said the new warehouse is scalable, “with the group expecting to invest over £50 million in the coming years, increasing capacity and offering [it] operational flexibility as it grows”. 

The deal is also expected to “secure up to 500 jobs and in the future create up to a further 1,000 jobs as capacity increases”.

Only last month, there was talk that while JD Sports Fashion may have lost out in the bidding race for some of Arcadia’s prime fashion brands, it was in exclusive talks to buy the site in the Midlands. It was believed to come with a price tag of £60 million+.

At the time it was also reported that the sale price would trigger the repayment of a £50 million loan to Arcadia made by former owner Philip Green’s family last year, and secured against the Daventry site.