Dart Products Europe has sold its former manufacturing facility in Cradley Heath, Birmingham, to John Pye Auctions for a price in excess of £10m.
The 347,447 sq ft site was put on the market in September last year and according to Bidwells the property generated significant interest from a wide range of end users, including developers, investors, speculators and owner occupiers.
Multiple bids were submitted for the facility and after a second round of competitive bidding John Pye Auctions was selected.
Adam Pye, managing director at John Pye & Sons, said: “Due to a large increase in stock levels and demand for our services from our clients across the whole business due to performance, in-house learning and innovations plus an increasing number of large insolvency instructions, we need more space to fulfil the evolving demands of our client base.
“This new site located in the West Midlands is in a strategic position in the country, so has huge benefits from a logistics point of view. Its size means we can take on more client stocks, hold more auctions and the location will contribute to our commitment to carbon reduction and sustainability by lowering transport emissions.”
Patrick Stanton, head of Bidwells’ industrial and logistics team, which handled the sale on behalf of Dart, said: “It has been a great pleasure working with Dart for the last 10 years. During this time, we have advised on various acquisitions and disposals of several high profile UK assets. The sale of the Cradley Heath, Dart’s UK HQ facility, is the last piece in the jigsaw and we are delighted to have secured a figure well in excess of the guide price.
“The market demand for freehold sites, especially of this size, remains incredibly strong from all sectors. We were able to generate considerable levels of interest from all fields, but it was the owner occupiers who remain well financed and keen to invest in their own real estate, that dominated the bidding process.”
John Pye was advised by Browne Jacobson on the deal.
