Business

The John Lewis Partnership has bought office blocks, a gym and a sports hall in the Southern Industrial Area near the Waitrose head office in Doncastle Road
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John Lewis builds up Bracknell empire

By Mike Pyle
February 22, 2011

The parent company of Bracknell-based chain Waitrose has bought units in the town and could create more jobs.

The John Lewis Partnership, which runs Waitrose, has bought office blocks, a gym and a sports hall in the Southern Industrial Area near the Waitrose head office in Doncastle Road.

The company said some of the newly acquired buildings will be used to provide services for people working across the group in both Waitrose and John Lewis, but it is not yet clear how many, if any, jobs will be created by the acquisitions.

John Lewis has bought 40,000 sq ft of office space at Hyde House and a further 25,000 sq ft of space at Holland House, both in Oldbury.

Hyde House will be refurbished, while Holland House, which is an empty shell, could be in use by the end of the year. The company has also bought the Panasonic gym and sports hall in Willoughby Road.

A spokesman for Waitrose said: “We acquired Hyde House at the end of last year.

“Some of the space will be used as the new headquarters for our partnership services division, which is a stand-alone division of the John Lewis Partnership providing a range of support services and financial processing for partners across the whole group. The Panasonic building comprises a large sports hall and gymnasium as well as two function rooms.

“The building is to undergo refurbishment before it will reopen under our management. We expect this to be up and running by the end of March.”

The purchase of the buildings comes after the news that Waitrose is to spearhead Bracknell’s regeneration with plans to build a 36,000 sq ft supermarket in Millennium Way.

Plans for the shop were being considered by Bracknell Forest Council’s planning committee at a meeting on Thursday

If planning permission is granted the company wants to start work on the store later this year with a view to opening in Spring 2012.

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Goldfish62 I don't think your wrong.

Change the Borough Executive, Binfield
27/02/2011 at 08:53

The council has been talking up the town centre regeneration in recent months. There are local elections in May. Could these two facts by chance be connected?

Goldfish62
23/02/2011 at 16:08

About as much info as we get from the Regeneration Partnership. Yes we are buying buildings. No we can't tell you what will go in them. At least the new supermarket is a positive move. The Bracknell store will have gross area of 36,000sq ft and a sales area of 25,000ft². The Waitrose stores in Wokingham, Sunningdale and Sandhurst have sales areas of 24,186ft² 15,621ft² and 18,875ft² respectively.

Sandyandy, Warfield
22/02/2011 at 13:07

Perfect. Now that's a decision based on forward planning and a clear strategy, which suggests the Borough Executive couldn't have had anything to do with that decision.