Express delivery group TNT is to create up to 250 jobs in Swindon in a new £15.5m ‘super-depot’ to be built in the shadow of the town’s giant B&Q warehouse.
The 55,900 sq ft (5,200 sq m) building, pictured in an artist’s impression, will be the first of its kind for the global TNT group combining a regional distribution hub for the central South of England with a local parcels depot. 
Performing a groundbreaking ceremony on the site at South Marston, North Swindon MP Justin Tomlinson described the development as another success for the town as it “powers ahead”.
He said it proved Swindon could attract blue-chip businesses and create jobs, which in turn gave it a national reputation as a town which welcomed go-ahead businesses. Some 7,000 jobs had been created in the town since 2010, he said, which had helped reduce unemployment by 58% over the same period.
He praised Swindon Council for playing a pivotal role in attracting new industry and jobs to the town.
“We have a diverse, skilled workforce, we have a great location on the M4 with excellent links to the M5 and we have sites ready for businesses to move onto,” he said.
“We have a new UTC (University Technical College) which is working with the business community to create skills and jobs for the future. We have £119m of investment in projects from the LEP (Swindon & Wiltshire Local Enterprise Partnership) coming into the town. Its a very exciting time to be in Swindon. The town is powering ahead.”
Swindon had an advantage over nearby cities such as Bath and Oxford because new buildings could be put up in its town centre without disturbing historic sites.
One hundred jobs – mainly for drivers, loading bay operatives and warehouse workers – will be created in the initial phase of its scheme with a further 150 likely to follow as it develops further, including the supply chain, TNT said.
The building will take around 24 weeks to complete and will then open as a small, test operation in the summer. A second phase will open later this year and it will become fully operational by spring 2016 by which time it will handle up to 30,000 parcels every day.
It will boast state-of-the-art sorting machinary and more than 100 loading bays, accommodating 40 long-haul trailers and a large number of pick-up and delivery trucks.
It is being built as TNT invests £35m in a new fleet of vehicles, which combined with the Swindon depot will cut delivery times, increase efficiencies and lower the impact on the environment.
The sorting section of the new building will handle parcels collected from an area stretching from Land’s End to the outskirts of London and the Midlands and sort them for onward delivery.
Currently these items are routed to the Midlands for sorting before being driven back into the region for delivery.
The local parcels part of the new building will handle deliveries to businesses in the Swindon area.
TNT UK director of operations Simon Harper said Swindon had been top of the group’s list for the new depot.
“It plugs a gap in our network,” he said. “This site was available and the road network is excellent.”
The express delivery market is growing rapidly as online shopping becomes more commonplace.
Keeping local parcel traffic in the South West will mean fewer vehicles and fewer miles on already congested roads and motorways, said TNT.
It estimates its long-haul lorries will reduce mileage by nearly 690,000miles (1.1m km), which, in turn, will reduce CO2 emissions by up to 815,000kg a year.
The TNT depot is being built on a 10-acre section of developer IDI Gazeley’s 98-acre G.Park scheme. It follows the opening of retail giant B&Q’s 800,000 sq ft distribution depot three years ago.
The last undeveloped section of G.Park has outline planning permission for a 400,000 sq ft building. Gazeley UK head Nigel Godfrey said it had already attracted interest from a number of potential occupiers including one major local business looking to relocate within Swindon.
The strong interest was a sign that Swindon needed more employment land, he said – particularly as its location on the M4 made it a magnet for retailers and logistics firms needing new sites to deal with the online retail boom.
The TNT development is being supported by Forward Swindon, the town’s economic regeneration and inward investment company.
The groundbreaking ceremony coincided with the latest official economic growth figures from the Office for National Statistics which showed that the UK economy grew by 2.6% last year, its fastest pace since 2007. However, the rate of growth slowed to 0.5% in the final three months of 2014 from 0.7% growth during the previous three months.
Mr Tomlinson welcomed the figures as proof the Government’s economic policies were working. But Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls said the fourth-quarter slowdown was a concern. He told the BBC: “Tory claims that the economy is fixed will ring hollow with working people” whose “wages are down by £1,600 a year since 2010.”
