Situated on the South coast, 130 miles south of the Midlands ‘Golden Triangle’ for logistics, Southampton has always been a port, and the docks have long been a major employer in the city. In particular, it is a port for cruise ships; RMS Titanic set sail from Southampton in 1912 and during the inter-war years, it handled almost half the passenger traffic of the UK. But Southampton is also the largest freight port on the Channel and fourth-largest UK port by tonnage, with several container terminals. Unlike Liverpool, London, and Bristol, where industry has largely moved out of the city centres leaving room for redevelopment, Southampton’s docks are still at the city’s heart, reflecting its maritime heritage. This was the location for two of the latter warehouse visits on the 80-strong tour schedule of the UK Warehousing Association’s CEO Clare Bottle.
Starting out in nearby Chichester, Bartholomews began as a farming supplier over 140 years ago, specialising in trading grain, fertiliser, animal feed and seeds. Later expanding into exporting grain to domestic, European and world markets, it made sense to start their own distribution business in the 1980s too, which is still run by the Bartholomew family, alongside the agricultural business. They stored and distributed books for many years, but that market has given way to a wider range of goods these days, even including teeth-whitening kits! Toys are in the ascendancy during the run-up to Christmas, and a team of employees, agency staff and even the next generation of the family is hard at work on added value services to make store-ready displays of cuddly toys.
Conversely, Meachers is no longer run by the eponymous Meachers family, whose original business was a coal merchant. But is still a privately owned firm with a family ethos. Local MP Caroline Nokes joined this visit too and remarked on the prevalence of Meachers buildings throughout the Nursling Industrial Estate: in total they have half a million square feet of warehousing (including a smaller site in Derby). Southampton is the home of Carnival Cruises, the world’s largest cruise company and a key client of Meachers. The business of cruises relies on a very wide range of merchandise including engineering parts, fine art works, food and even carpets. Just prior to the visit, Christmas trees had been prepared and decorated at the warehouse, then despatched for display on board the ships. Warehouse Manager Emma Newman won this year’s UKWA award for management and took delight in showing guests around her patch.
A new report from real estate experts JLL on the New Industrial Revolution, predicts that the next wave of industrial development in the UK will include more manufacturing sites; and that these will be most likely to be located at ports. So it was fitting that Southampton was also the location of UKWA’s visit number 80 and the grand finale party. More on that in the next edition of Warehouse & Logistics News…
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