DP World and GXO Logistics have announced that DP World will take over six UK contract logistics sites from GXO, adding more than two million square feet of warehouse capacity and around 2,000 staff; financial terms were not disclosed. It matters because it hands a major grocery distribution network to an operator that can now run it end-to-end alongside its own ports and freight operations, rather than as a standalone contract logistics contract.

DP World is a Dubai-based ports, logistics and supply chain operator whose UK business includes the London Gateway and Southampton container ports, alongside freight forwarding, marine services and existing contract logistics operations.

GXO Logistics is a US-headquartered contract logistics provider listed on the New York Stock Exchange, operating warehousing and distribution services for retail, food and consumer goods customers across multiple countries.

The six sites, five in England and one in Northern Ireland, cover more than 185,000 square metres, store approximately 46,000 unique product lines, and provide ambient, chilled, frozen and bonded storage serving Asda, Sainsbury's and the Co-op.

The transfer was not a voluntary sale but a regulatory condition. The UK Competition and Markets Authority required GXO to divest the sites as a condition of clearing GXO's acquisition of Wincanton, and has now approved their transfer to DP World.

GXO will retain transport operations at all six sites, meaning DP World inherits the warehousing and storage function while GXO keeps the road freight layer that connects those depots to stores.

For the sector, the deal deepens its existing perishable goods and cold chain capability in Europe, adding scaled ambient and temperature-controlled grocery storage to a UK network already anchored by two major container ports.

The transaction also shows that competition remedies from major logistics mergers are now reallocating large-scale warehouse capacity between global operators, reshaping who controls critical infrastructure behind supermarket shelves without any retailer switching supplier.

Source: Food Business Middle East & Africa / Grocery Gazette / GlobeNewswire