The Barnsley business is set to open the new centre this summer, creating new jobs
The Company Shop Group site based in Darton, South Yorkshire(Image: Company Shop Group)
Major surplus goods business Company Shop Group has announced it is launching a new multimillion-pound redistribution centre in Yorkshire. The Barnsley based group is a leading UK redistributor and retailer of surplus products, operating a network of 14 ‘Surplus Supermarkets’ across the UK selling discounted surplus from over 800 brands, retailers and manufacturers to its members.
It also operates a not-for-profit arm social enterprise, Community Shop, which provides access to heavily discounted food and household essentials. Now the business, which is owned by Biffa plc, is opening a new redistribution centre handing frozen products in Darton, South Yorkshire, marking a multimillion-pound investment.
The 73,007 sq ft site will open in the Summer, and become fully operational by October. The site is being refitted before bringing the freezers down to temperature and final testing ahead of becoming operational.
The investment in the new facility comes after Company Shop Group announced that it had reached the milestone of redistributing 1 billion surplus items since the business began, and marks one of the organisation’s biggest investments since it moved to its existing headquarters in Tankersley, where it processes ambient and chilled products.
Having doubled the amount of frozen surplus handled over the last five years, bosses said the fresh investment demonstrates Company Shop Group’s ongoing commitment to providing its partners with industry-leading solutions that prevent surplus food, drink and household products becoming waste.
The new redistribution centre, which is based a few miles from its existing Tankersley site, will process and redistribute millions of frozen food items across the UK through its network of supermarkets and its Community Shop.
Chris Burns, group managing director of Company Shop Group(Image: Company Shop Group)
The move brings its frozen operations entirely in-house providing increased scale to handle more items. Existing staff have moved to the new site and the new frozen redistribution centre will create at least five new roles.
Chris Burns, group managing director of Company Shop Group, said: “Over the last five years we have doubled the amount of frozen surplus that we handle and this new redistribution centre is a major investment for the future, bringing significantly increased operational capacity.
“By bringing our frozen operations in-house, we will be better positioned to support our industry partners, creating a more efficient system and a platform for continued investment in our product interventions. All of which will help stop even more perfectly good products from going to waste.”
Martin Upton, operations director at Company Shop Group, added: “The new frozen redistribution centre will allow us to process far more pallets per day reinforcing our unique ability to redistribute frozen surplus at a very large scale. This brings significant benefits, including the opportunity to introduce new product interventions that will enable us to provide even more support to our partners and redistribute more stock.”
Company Shop Group’s primary redistribution centre at Tankersley will continue to operate, handling ambient and chilled products.