Pallas Foods pounce on meaty Cork deal

The country’s largest wholesale food supplier, Pallas Foods, which has an annual turnover in excess of €350m, has closed out a deal on a 83,000sq ft logistics building in Cork’s Courtstown. It is one of the biggest industrial lettings of the year.

Coming hot on the heels of a 95,000sq ft letting at Ringport, Ringaskiddy, reported here last month, this latest deal with Pallas Foods is further evidence of the scale of increased economic activity and is expected to fuel confidence in speculative building of further logistics, warehouse and industrial developments.

Among the sites in the greater Cork area for future spec building are Blarney Business Park, with the JCD Group actively developing and letting there, and Harbour Point near Little Island, where developer Seamus Geaney is in the final throes of the planning process for 220,000sq ft, spread across five buildings.

Headquartered in Dublin and with a major base in Newcastlewest in Limerick, as well as Lisburn in Antrim, Pallas Foods has completed the letting of an entire, just-rebuilt 83,000sq ft headquarters and logistics building after a multimillion-euro investment by owners, the O’Connell Group.

The utterly revamped Grade A building to be occupied by Pallas Foods had its roots back 40 years ago, to 1979, and was associated with C&C Group/Britvic for decades. After Britvic vacated in 2009 with a move to Kylemore, Dublin following a rationalisation, it was put up for sale in ‘09 on 5.5 acres, with a price tag of €8m quoted by Savills Cork.

Now, following its subsequent sale in 2017 to, and redevelopment by, the Cork-based O’Connell Group who control 1 million sq ft of logistics/storage/distribution space in the greater Cork district, notably Glanmire, Little Island, and Port of Cork as well as in Limerick, it’s to be occupied by Pallas Foods, coincidentally set up in Limerick in the 1980s by the Geary family.

Employing 1,300 on the island of Ireland Pallas was acquired a decade ago by US-based Sysco Foods, with a turnover of $58bn.

Earlier this year, Pallas paid €47m for the Dwyer- family owned Cork-based Classic Drinks business, based in the OC Industrial Park, Little Island.

The Pallas Courtstown deal was done by agent Niall Guerin of Savills Cork, who had the 83,000sq ft building up for sale or to let earlier this year, quoting a rent of about €8 psf at the time.

And, in September of 2019, Savills Cork also offered for sale a “dry investment” of 57,000sq ft on four acres at Wallingstown, Little Island, on behalf of the O’Connell Group.

Also revamped to a high standard, it had a guide of €5.2m to purchase and is let to wholesale motor factors Gaynor Pearse, at €7 psf, €371,000 per annum, or a net initial yield of 6.59%.

Meanwhile,the largest industrial deal in close to a decade was the 95,000 sq ft at Ringport, Ringaskiddy, initially developed by John Fleming, and let at €380,000 pa to Precision Quality Glass who are expected to invest signifiant capital sums.

The deal was done by Lisney, with Cohalan Downing Associates.

• DETAILS: Savills 021-4271371