Opening for £6m giant warehouse extension

West Midlands Mayor Andy Street was joined by Guardian Warehousing operations manager Mandy Hoadley, who has worked at the site for 16 years, to cut the ribbon for the 67,000 sq ft extension.

Guardian – on the former Aspray Logistics site at Noose Lane – now has 130,000 sq ft of high bay warehousing that is home to the new national distribution centre for Vibrant Foods, one of the largest South Asian food groups in Europe.

Mr Street welcomed the new long-term partnership between Guardian and Vibrant that has led to the extension which has created 42 new jobs in logistics and warehousing.

He said the site was set to grow and create more jobs in the future.

"Logistics in the West Midlands has huge potential. This site in Willenhall is at the heart of the transport network and is near many of Vibrant's customers and suppliers," added Mr Street.

He added that the £6m investment demonstrated tremendous belief in – and commitment to – the West Midlands

The high bay extension has increased the total warehousing at the Noose Lane site to 300,000 sq ft. The lower part of the site, including former transport buildings, has been freshly cladded and equipped with racking to take up to 10,000 pallets

Guardian Warehousing, which is part of Bushell Investment Group, employed 60 under managing director Glyn Byrne before the extension was completed. Bushell bought the Aspray site in 2020 and rebranded it.

It was 18 months from conceiving the project in partnership with Vibrant to its completion. The build took six months and was carried out by A & H Construction from Halesowen. It used more than 250 tonnes of steel and has provided 12,500 extra pallet spaces

Lee Bushell, chief executive of Bushsell Investment Group and a director of Guardian, said that an application for another 90,000 sq ft to form phase three of the site and increasing capacity was in pre-application stage with Walsall Council.

A new business Hexagon Fulfil, an e-fufillment operation for Guardian Warehousing, has also been set up to operate from the Noose Lane site.

Mr Bushell said; "Congratulations to the Guardian Warehousing project team on delivering the impressive extension and facilitating the partnership with Vibrant."

"We have invested over £10m into the site and created over 150 new jobs since acquisition," he added

Guardian will also be offering vocational training and apprenticeship routes into the warehousing, logisitics and fulfilment industries.

Vibrant, which has its head office in Watford, includes the East End Foods manufacturing base at Kenrick Way, West Bromwich.

Umesh Parmar, chief executive of Vibrant, said the closeness of the Guardian site to East End had been a major factor in choosing the site.

Mr Parmar said the new distribution centre was for all its brands, which also include TRS, Cofresh, Everest and Fudco, but a large part of the stock came from East End.

He said the new centre was already supplying supermarkets across the country and from Monday would be supplying independent shops and wholesalers as well.