"More spending on real estate in the fruit and vegetable sector"

Construction work was recently started in Bleiswijk for a new WDP customer, Total Exotics. It concerns an investment budget of 6.5 million Euro and a surface of 4,700 square metres and 1,150 m2 office. WDP is supplying the building 'bare'. "An advantage is that we don't supply standard real estate. We look at the desires of the customer and tailor it to fit. We have known Total Exotics for a year now and we soon clicked. They're a good customer," says Rien van Ast of WDP Nederland. WDP is specialised in the development and hire of logistical real estate.

Investments
WDP has other well known companies in the fruit and vegetable sector as their clients as well, such as Greenyard, The Greenery and Staay Food Group. Rien indicates that they are proud to add another fresh produce company to their portfolio. "In the first instance it's quite a conservative sector, so owners like to control everything, including real estate. Yet we slowly see the development of more companies choosing to invest in other parts of their companies or operations rather than their location. There is more spending on real estate in the fruit and vegetable sector. Our manner of working is flexible for companies. They rent for a certain period and when they want to leave they can."

Click to view photos of the construction work in Bleiswijk

More and more new buildings
According to Rien there are almost no empty buildings anymore. "This development means that the choice to build something new is made more and more often. What we do can be done in existing buildings, but finding a good building is increasingly difficult. There isn't a lot on the market and what is there is rubbish." The General Director of WDP regularly looks towards the future. "Sometimes I wonder whether the current logistical hotspots are also those of the future. There are a lot of technical development in the market, such as robots and automation and e-commerce. I think there will be some shifts in the size and location of the buildings. Of course, we don't know exactly what direction it's heading in, but it's a very interesting business."

Growth in Romania
WDP is active in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France and Romania. "In general we notice a huge demand for logistical real estate. Companies see a lot of opportunities in the market and are consolidating more and more. There are various shifts, including companies coming from Belgium to the Netherlands. There is just more business." He indicates that there is growth everywhere, but that it is huge in Romania. "The demand used to mainly come from the automotive side. We started working there around 2008 and have built a few 5,000 metre halls for that sector there, which is still growing. We also built a distribution centre for Decathlon and Carrefour. People have more money to spend there. The demand for consumer items and retail products is increasing, people can buy more luxury items."

Going along with the customer
He indicates that WDP doesn't have any plans to expand at the moment. "This is because we still have enough to do in the countries that we're already active in. The Netherlands is still growing considerable for us, as are Romania and Luxembourg. There is enough to do there for the next couple of years. Of course we aren't stationary and listen to our customers. There are those who want to move to a different country. Sometimes we choose to go with them. An example is Action, one of our big customers. We moved with this organisation to southern France and bought the location there."

For more information:
WDP Nederland
+31 (0)76 523 6650
Hoge Mosten 2
4822NH Breda
Postbus 9970, 4801 LW
www.wdp.eu