Lineage Logistics building out in the U.K.

NOVI, Michigan – Lineage Logistics, LLC, is expanding in the United Kingdom at its Peterborough Superhub in the South East 112 kilometres from Central London and at its Northern Superhub in Heywood near Manchester.

Lineage broke ground on a 92,000-pallet-position, fully automated expansion at its Peterborough location, which will serve both retail and foodservice customers with unique supply chain requirements. This 35-metre tall expansion will use seophisticated automation and refrigeration technology, helping to reduce energy consumption and overall environmental impact.

This new capacity will complement 26,000 existing conventional pallet positions at the property, which combined with the expansion’s automated design will allow for flexible, customized solutions for customers. This investment brings Lineage’s total automated warehouse count in the UK to six, with a total of 330,000 automated pallet positions.

Lineage’s phased expansion approach in Peterborough is in response to growing customer demand from both online and conventional grocery sales – a trend which was accelerated as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. In the UK, online sales now account for 13 percent of all grocery sales, up from 7.4 percent in March 2020, and new online customers are predicted to continue shopping online. Frozen items have also increased in popularity, and the sector is up 22 percent year over year.

In addition to the expansion in Peterborough, the final phase of the company’s expansion plans in Heywood will be fully operational in March 2021 and add 22,000 pallet positions to the existing location.

Lineage Logistics is the largest temperature-controlled supply chain and logistics provider in the UK, and will offer over 525,000 pallet positions of capacity in country following construction. The company has over 2,000 regional, national and international customers across 14 facilities nationwide, including Scotland. Over 1,500 of Lineage’s 16,000 global employees are based in the UK.

These expansions follow Lineage’s recent entrance into the Nordic and Canadian markets and increase overall capacity to 1.9 billion cubic feet and 56 million square feet of capacity across more than 320 facilities in 13 countries, spanning North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand.