A GLOBAL freight operator is to create 20 new jobs as it expands into a new 45,000 sq ft Hampshire unit.

Charles Kendall is currently moving into the newly-completed £20 million Alpha Park development in Chandler’s Ford, taking occupancy of a Grade A unit four times the size of its current home.

The company, which specialises in end-to-end supply chain management, is moving the park, on Electron way, from its current 11,000 sq ft home on the Boyatt Industrial Estate, Eastleigh, where it employs a team of ten.

The firm’s managing director Peter Sunderland, said the new depot should be fully operational by the end of July or early August.

“Southampton is a key location for us and this new facility will allow us to offer different products and services in the supply chain,” said Peter.

This would include customs clearance and container devanning.

Charles Kendall is a global business with 264 sites worldwide.

It is the second business to confirm occupancy at Alpha Park, with courier and logistics company DX Network Services having taken up the site’s 19,141 sq ft Unit 1.

Alpha Park, constructed by Bericote Properties in as scheme forward funded by BlackRock Real Assets, was designed to cater for increasing demand from industrial and logistics occupiers for commercial property on the south coast.

The last remaining unit – the 84,831 sq ft Unit 3 - is available and ready to occupy, with agents Lambert Smith Hampton (LSH) and recently appointed BNP Paribas reporting significant levels of interest.

Adrian Whitfield, Industrial & Logistics Director for the south coast offices at LSH, said: “Charles Kendall is renowned locally, nationally and internationally as a leader in freight solutions, and Alpha Park is a perfect fit in terms of scale, location and quality of facilities.