Jaynic ideally placed to optimise logistics boom as it builds out a broad property portfolio
Goods that you have handed to you or packages dumped on your doorstep by various delivery drivers from a range of sources are testimony to the upsurge in logistics. You buy it, someone has to make it in a factory and then ship it out.
As a swift Google search will also inform you, logistics is the process of planning and executing the efficient transportation and storage of goods from the point of origin to the point of consumption. The goal of logistics is to meet customer requirements in a timely, cost-effective manner.
It helps to explain why so many companies, in the East of England and elsewhere, which make goods have decided that it is more cost-effective to occupy a large warehouse facility and house offices within what is sometimes just a shell of a building.
If, for example, you are fortunate enough to buy, say, a 77,000 sq ft logistics building - as Jaynic is marketing at Suffolk Park in Bury St Edmunds – it is simple enough to devote a significant area within such a building to house offices.
London-quoted Treatt plc, which makes and supplies natural extracts and ingredients to the global flavour, fragrance and consumer goods industries, has grown its manufacturing facilities there, taken advantage of the huge space available for office administration and been able to keep separate its sales and laboratory facilities in China. Treatt effectively services more than 90 countries from the Suffolk Park HQ.
Buying separate industrial and office buildings within logistics makes no sense whatsoever, Treatt and a great many other steady international players have discovered to their benefit.
Jaynic’s Gateway 14 developments in Suffolk have also been in great demand. For example, The Range agreed terms with Jaynic to acquire a huge building with a footprint of 1.17 million sq ft there as the company’s Eastern Distribution Centre. The building that opened for business last year provides 1,650 jobs and forms part of the Freeport East zone which offers a number of tax benefits.
The building is a new distribution centre for the home, garden and leisure products retailer.
Jaynic owner and mastermind, Nic Rumsey, is the brains and the source of money behind some of the East of England’s most successful commercial developments. The information we discussed in a recent exclusive interview will form the basis of a series of articles in Business Weekly in the coming weeks.
He set up the Rumsey & Partners development consultancy in 1993 and Jaynic Investments LLP in 2008 to flesh out Haverhill Research Park. His other successes have included Cambridge Research Park, Buckingway Business Park, Haverhill Business Park, the University of Essex Knowledge Gateway, Suffolk Park, Gateway 14, and The EpiCentre in Haverhill where his office is based.
Nic owns The EpiCentre, a thriving hive of life science and tech innovation, which is managed by Oxford Innovation and has become a key hub of local community life as well as a happy hunting ground for some great businesses.
Resilience is one of the current buzzwords in business and over the years Nic and his enterprises have shown plenty of it. Having survived the credit crunch of 2007-2008 – his most anxious time in business - Nic reckons his company is now stronger than ever.
“The only sleepless nights I can recall suffering consistently came during that financial crash which took down many big hitters in the property development sector. Overall, business went through five years of relative misery but looking back I was lucky to get through it and we have bounced back strongly.
“By contrast the COVID outbreak in 2020 provided the opportunity for us to further strengthen our proposition – to expand our portfolio and emerge well placed to exploit the bounceback. “Since then we have continued to develop a robust portfolio and are seeking fresh opportunities for growth. The demand for solutions sought by the logistics sector and the general appetite for more sustainable developments feeds into our strengths.
“We are actively seeking more land for development while strengthening our focus on existing sites. We are fortunate to have good relationships with planners and productive property players in both the residential and commercial sectors.”
Considerable progress has been made on a number of varied schemes. These include the 91-acre Stanton Business Park where the company is seeking planning permission to bring forward the former RAF airfield site for employment purposes. It is intended to engender a focus on commercial uses – E(g), B2, B8. The application also includes landscaping and a new estate road.
Jaynic is also proposing a handsome development on 40 acres of land adjacent to Cambridge Services off the A14 - again for employment use – and has a similarly upbeat objective for 250 acres at Barton Mills off the A11.
Three residential schemes also point to interesting opportunities as the UK demand for new homes near places of work continues to gather pace. Residential development is being promoted by Jaynic for 70 acres in Barrett Lane, Needham Market, which Jaynic co-owns with East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices; ditto a 270-acre site at Rougham Hill, Bury St Edmunds and 30 acres in Horsham, Sussex, for 150 new homes.
Variety is certainly spicing up life for Jaynic and while making money was always a drive for the young Nic Rumsey, making a difference has become the abiding mantra for the expanding Jaynic team. For more on Jaynic’s various development schemes, feel free to visit www.jaynic.co.uk