Osborne pre-election visit to heavy construction hub at Tilbury

Construction material supplier Travis Perkins received a visit from the Chancellor of the Exchequer at its new distribution centre in Tilbury, one of a number of ‘Range Centres’ it is opening across the country, allowing all its branches to offer next day delivery on any heavy-side product. 

Each new distribution centre is creating a substantial number of new jobs for its local community – with recruitment already under way for over 500 jobs – so the new Tilbury Range Centre was the ideal venue for the Chancellor of the Exchequer to discuss the 2015 Budget. These opportunities are part of the 4,000 new jobs Travis Perkins has announced it will be creating over the next four years. 

Cardiff’s 7,820 square metre (81,473 square feet) Range Centre opened in December 2014, joining the existing centre at Warrington, which stocks 2950 SKUs and has 140 members of staff on site. Two more Range Centres are set to follow, with Tilbury opening July 2015 and Coventry June 2016. Home to an extensive range of heavy side products, each Range Centre will supply hundreds of Travis Perkins branches, ensuring that every branch has immediate access to a much wider range of stock.

Thanks to these new centres, customers will benefit from increased heavy-side stock levels in all branches, along with the option of next day delivery on any unavailable products. The Range Centres deliver all orders overnight, so customers don’t have to worry about competing with delivery lorries for parking spaces.

Joel Brown, Group Supply Chain Development Manager at Travis Perkins, comments: “It was fantastic to receive a visit from George Osborne and celebrate all the job opportunities we are creating. At Travis Perkins we’re always striving to give our customers the best experience possible and we’re delighted to be able to offer next day delivery on all products, thanks to the new Range Centres. It’s great timing as our latest Travis Perkins catalogue has just launched, so our customers can now get all the latest products, no later than the day after they order them.”

In addition to the Range Centres, Travis Perkins has also opened a new hub for light side materials - the Omega Centre in Warrington will serve over 450 branches, and stock 19,000 SKUs. Dedicated to a selection of Travis Perkins plc businesses - CPS, Travis Perkins, PTS, Keyline, CCF and Benchmarx, the Group will be investing £600 million a year in this hub to provide customers with increased light-side stock levels and faster delivery.