By Scott Wright
THE former Cummins diesel engine factory in Shotts, which in its heyday made high-speed engines for cars and trains, is being marketed for industrial use again.
The site, located at Junction 5 M8 Business Park, was home to Cummins’ first manufacturing facility outside the US when it opened in 1956.
At its peak, Cummins employed around 2,000 people in the factory, where it pioneered a new breed of engines used by trains, including the British Rail Sprinter units.
The factory, based in a former textile mill known as the Wrens’ Nest, was closed in 1998, when it consolidated operations in Darlington.
However, efforts are now being made to find a new tenant for the 500,000 square-foot premises, with Shepherd Chartered Surveyors citing strong demand for industrial property amid the continuing e-commerce boom. Shepherd, which is marketing the lease, highlighted the site’s favourable location from a logistics standpoint. It is based 25 miles from Glasgow, 20 miles from Edinburgh, and is close to Airdrie, Coatbridge, Motherwell and the Eurocentral business park.
Steve Barnett, managing partner at Shepherd, said: “We are greatly encouraged by the level of enquiries received to date in advance of the launch of the formal marketing campaign of this iconic building.
“Industrial stock has continued to perform well, partly due to occupiers seeking additional space as a result of the recent expansion of e-commerce, but also through the change in vacant rates liabilities a number of years ago which led to a significant amount of dated industrial stock being demolished and developed for alternative uses, thereby reducing supply at a time when demand has been rising.
“Add in the additional stock-piling requirements as a result of Brexit, coupled with limited speculative development over recent years, demand has outstripped supply, resulting in a rise in rents and capital values as the level of ‘take up’ increases.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel