First client signed at Culina Port Salford

General Mills UK & Ireland has been secured as the anchor client for Culina Port Salford, the 280,000 sq ft tri-modal logistics facility being developed by Peel Ports Group.

General Mills is responsible for the distribution of a range of food brands, including Old El Paso, Green Giant, Betty Crocker and Nature Valley.

Food and drink logistics giant Culina Group was named as the pre-let tenant at Peel Ports' National Import Centre last month and will operate the facility.

The warehouse next to the Manchester Ship Canal, M60 andM62 is expected to be completed by April 2016.

Peel Land & Property has consent for 1.6m sq ft of warehousing at Port Salford, which it hopes will be mainly used for moving goods arriving at the £300m Liverpool 2 container terminal, due to open in December.

The shed will be the first unit developed within the Peel Logistics initiative.

The main contractor is John Sisk & Son. Fletcher Rae Architects designed the development.

Dave Howorth, director of General Mills, said: "We are very excited about this new distribution agreement as it reinforces our commitment as a company to finding solutions that are best for customers, consumers and the environment, and our move to Port Salford ticks all those boxes."

Mark Whitworth, chief executive of Peel Ports, said: "This excellent news is a clear endorsement of the benefits to the UK supply chain that we envisaged when developing Port Salford and such investments are helping the North West to transform the UK logistics infrastructure. As well as excellent road and rail links, the area will soon be able to offer the unique route of the Manchester Ship Canal, connected directly to our new Liverpoool2 container terminal, enabling companies to get closer to their markets."