Top events firm moving to £9m HQ in Wolverhampton

Event Hire UK has agreed a 15-year lease on a 55,575 sq ft warehouse, speculatively developed by Barberry on a 3.5-acre site at Well Lane, Wolverhampton.

The move has created around 30 new jobs at the ambitious company which works alongside some of the most high-profile and prestigious occasions in the UK events calendar including Wimbledon, Royal Ascot, the Royal International Air Tattoo, Henley Royal Regatta, World Cycling and Open Golf Championships, the Jockey Club, the British Grand Prix and Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Called Barberry 55, the development is a highly specified grade A sustainable building, EPC A-rated with 10-metre clear height eaves, 45 car parking spaces and 50-metre yard depth, with dock and level access loading provision.

Main contractor Halesowen's A&H Construction has reached practical completion of the unit.

Barberry acquired the site from ASSA ABLOY for an undisclosed sum.

The development is another demonstration of Barberry’s continued investment in the region, creating significant job opportunities while helping to address the shortage of new industrial accommodation in the West Midlands.

Jon Robinson, development director at Barberry Industrial, said: “In completing Barberry 55 we have delivered another one of our market leading speculative developments comprising a new, Grade A building designed with sustainable credentials in mind providing an industrial and logistics hub in Wolverhampton, with our letting achieved two months before practical completion.

“We always believed our new building would provide much-needed quality accommodation for businesses to expand their operations within the Midlands, securing employment and creating new jobs. As such, we are delighted to welcome Event Hire UK to Barberry 55 and we wish the company enormous success in its new headquarters in the heart of the West Midlands.”

Les Vipond, managing director of Event Hire UK, said: “We’ve come a long way since establishing the business in 2005 at our original base in Walsall. Since then, we have enjoyed significant and rapid expansion, resulting in our need to relocate to this fantastic new headquarters.

“We were keen to remain close to our roots in a highly convenient location and Barberry 55 ticks all the boxes. It works extremely well for our employees and clients while offering us the opportunity to create another 30 jobs for local people. This move reinforces our strategic network of operating locations enabling us to offer a truly nationwide service to our valued clients, whilst also helping to reduce our carbon environmental impact. It’s also been hugely refreshing dealing with Barberry who are one of the region’s leading developers.”

The joint letting agents were JLL and Avison Young. Richard James-Moore, industrial and logistics director at JLL, said: “The demand for industrial properties built to a highly sustainable specification such as Barberry 55 continues unabated. Having acquired the site on behalf of Barberry I am pleased to see Barberry’s commitment to speculatively building Barberry 55 rewarded, culminating in the letting to Event Hire UK. We look forward to working with Barberry again and wish Event Hire UK every success operating from the property.”

Event Hire UK has further sales and distribution centres in London, Bradford, Middlesbrough and Manchester. It holds a £5 million-plus stock value and more than 2.5 million items available for hire.

Barberry, based at Belbroughton, near Stourbrdige, has a 3.6 million sq ft industrial/logistics development portfolio with a Gross Development Value exceeding £500 million. It is currently developing a £40 million state-of-the-art manufacturing and design facility for a global leader in engine and flight controls systems in Gloucestershire. The 207,000 sq ft centre of excellence for Moog’s Aircraft Controls Segment is being built on a 10-acre site at Ashchurch, Tewkesbury.