Tritax Big Box takes on Unilever centre in Doncaster

Real estate investment trust Tritax Big Box announced on Wednesday that it acquired a national distribution centre at Trax Park, Doncaster, which was currently and would continue to be operated by Unilever UK.

The FTSE 250 company said total consideration for the acquisition was £20.9m - excluding purchaser's costs - reflecting a net initial yield of 5.61% on the asset acquisition.

It said the purchase was being funded from equity proceeds.

Located in Trax Park, the property is strategically situated in a core UK distribution location with “excellent” motorway, rail and port connections, the board explained.

It is close to the M18, A1(M) and M1, and benefitted from good access to the ports of Hull and Grimsby.

The property is also adjacent to the Doncaster Rail Freight Terminal.

Tritax said the site was a well-established regional and national distribution centre location with a number of major occupiers located close by including Amazon, Wincanton, XPO Logistics, B&Q, and Tesco in addition to the company's facilities let to Next and The Range.

Purpose-built in 2002 for Unilever, the facility was described as a “high specification facility” with a gross internal area of 262,885 square feet and a site density of around 53%.

It has an eaves height of between 11 and 26 metres, extensive parking, is highly automated and benefitted from “significant” capital investment, the board explained.

The property was acquired with a new 15-year lease in place, subject to five yearly upward-only rent reviews indexed to the Retail Price Index with a collar and cap in place.

“Unilever is a leading globally-recognised consumer goods company and we are delighted to add them to the very strong list of tenants in our portfolio,” said Tritax partner Colin Godfrey.

“This investment further diversifies our portfolio by tenant and business sector.

“This acquisition maintains our weighted average unexpired lease term at over 15 years and is earnings accretive.”