VGP MULTINATIONAL APPLIES 20ME IN LOGISTIC PARK WITH 195 JOBS IN SANTA MARIA DA FEIRA

The Belgian multinational VGP will begin in December to build in Santa Maria da Feira its 62nd industrial and logistic park, investing 20 million euros in warehouses ready-to-use by tenants, which are expected to employ 195 people.

According to the company's management, which, in the rest of Europe, has leaseholders brands such as BMW, Amazon, Lidl, Decathlon, DHL, Ali-Baba and UPS, by the end of 2020 the new park will occupy 73,500. square meters in an area of Nogueira da Regedoura, which, also in this municipality of Aveiro district, is located next to the access junctions to the A1 and CREP-A41 highways.

Recalling that his career began in 1998 when, when he was very young, he run away to the Czech Republic to set up a baby diaper company, the Belgian Jan Van Geet, director-general of VGP, said his activity has evolved to a presence in 11 countries and his focus is now on "providing turnkey solutions" for tenants in the logistic sector, in industry and commerce sectors.

VGP is thus distributed across 11 European countries and, if it chose to install its 62nd park at Santa Maria da Feira, it was because the municipality met the requirement to present the "best possible location", in a geographical point with "public transport, technical characteristics and feasibility of operations 24/7 [24 hours a day, seven days a week]”.

With immediate access to the A41 and CREP-A41, and also to the A49 and EN1, Nogueira da Regedoura has what Jan Van Geet considers essential for companies to set up in the new park can easily access any location in the country and the border with Spain, and, through CREP-A41, "circulate faster around Porto".

The beginning of the contract comes after "a few months" of negotiations with the City Hall of Santa Maria da Feira, and, in this regard, the founder of VGP pointed out differences between the Portuguese bureaucracy and Germany’s, where the multinational has its largest representation: "Germany is also a very bureaucratic country, like Romania and Spain, but, to be honest, it was really nice to work with City Hall of Santa Maria da Feira".

Emídio Sousa, president of this municipality, defended that the VGP project is "another tool to attract foreign investment to the municipality" and, taking into consideration the 195 jobs that this multinational estimates to create in Nogueira park, he said: "Our territory is already in a position to attract better wages. Our new goal is that local employment shifts from cheap labor force to skilled labor force, as we have so much here”.

The 73,500-square-meter land of VGP's new venture will include a warehouse area of over 30,000 square meters and another 30,500 for rental by one to seven companies. Air conditioned will be "a must have", parking will be available for light and heavy vehicles, and energy will be "green" thanks to a photovoltaic panel system classified o0f "Very Good" by the BREEAM certification model.

According to Jan Van Geet, VGP is listed on the Euronext exchanges, has a 50% joint venture with Allianz and has been recording cumulative growth of 30% per year, and by the end of 2019 this rate should rise to 50%.