The 1.8m sq ft high-tech food manufacturing campus is to be built on the 155-acre former Celanese site near Spondon, Derby for client SmartParc.

The flagship Spondon site is part of SmartParc’s ambition to shake-up food production in the country with advanced growing technology.

This will harness the latest developments such as vertical farming and smart technology to improve production and energy efficiency, reducing costs and increasing competitive advantage for Parc tenants.

SmartParc’s revolutionary energy sharing infrastructure will utilise wind and solar combined with central services, to deliver the most sustainable food production community in the country.

SmartParc will re-engineer current food manufacturing and distribution processes

The announcement of the partnership today follows Derby City Council granting planning permission in June and £12m grant funding from the Government’s Getting Building Fund.

Jackie Wild, SmartParc CEO said: “We are delighted to announce SEGRO as our development partner as we work towards our goal of building the first world-leading, sustainable, high-tech food manufacturing and distribution campus.”

“We want to thank everyone involved in realising this vision in record time.

“From the first walk around site in May 2020 to starting on site in September 2021 – it shows what can be achieved when everyone pushes in the same direction with a shared agenda.”