Third party logistics firm Culina will open a new ambient food and drinks logistics facility in Port Salford next year, employing around 280 staff.
The 280,000ft² multimodal site will be at the National Import Centre, Port Salford, adjacent to the Manchester Ship Canal and next to the M60 and M62 motorways. Housing up to 45,000 pallets, the facility will begin operating by April and become fully operational by the end of the year.
A spokesman for Culina told Motortransport.co.uk the nearby Middleton operation, which houses 20,000 pallet locations and employs around 50, would be closed with all staff being given the opportunity to transfer to the new site, which is approximately 14 miles away. The remaining 230 jobs will be new, he added.
Apart from the extra capacity, a major advantage of the new facility will be its multimodal connections, he said. “The multimodal element isn’t necessarily a massive thing for us at the moment but strategically, it just gives us additional options. It was one of the big reasons why it was an attractive site for us.”
Culina will reveal some of the contracts and clients to be catered for at the new site in the course of the next month, he added.
