@first Parts Solutions, a fully owned subsidiary of Ford Retail, has opened a brand new 50,000 sq. ft. distribution centre at Thurrock in Essex.

With space for over 5m parts across 45,000 Ford, Mazda and Iveco lines, it has twice the capacity of @first’s old Barking site, which was originally designed to stock 1.4m parts, but ended up keeping around 2.6m.

Located close to the M25, the Thurrock centre will operate 24 hours a day to provide same-day deliveries across London, the Home Counties and East Anglia.

Managing director at @first, Jon Harte, commented: “This is a significant expansion in our warehousing capacity for the South East. It has also allowed us to modernise our stock management systems to ensure we offer the very best service to our growing customer base.”

All 97 staff from the Barking site have moved to the new location and further jobs are expected to be created.