Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council's Planning Committee has unanimously approved a new £18 million DHL Supply Chain warehouse at Ballyearl Business Park, Newtownabbey, relocating and expanding the existing Mallusk multi-user retail distribution centre. The development will create 80 new full-time jobs and transfer more than 200 existing roles, with operations required live by June 2027.

DHL Supply Chain is the contract logistics division of Deutsche Post DHL Group (ETR: DPW), with 2025 group revenues of €94.4 billion. DHL's Northern Ireland Supply Chain operation at Mallusk employs over 200 staff as part of a total Northern Ireland workforce of more than 700, delivering 143,000 deliveries annually across 600-plus store locations for retail clients including Marks & Spencer, Iceland, Alliance Healthcare, JD Wetherspoon, B&Q, Next, Dunelm, Tesco, Sainsbury's and TK Maxx. The developer is JH Turkington & Sons Ltd (NI018132), a Craigavon-based property developer that reported FY2024 turnover of £48.49 million, up 65% year on year. DHL is the tenant and operator.

The structural driver is DHL Supply Chain's capacity ceiling at Mallusk combined with new retail client wins requiring operational scale by June 2027. Expansion at the existing Mallusk site is not possible, according to the planning officer's report; the Ballyearl Business Park site provides the footprint to consolidate existing operations and accommodate new business simultaneously within a purpose-built facility.

The second DHL approval in Newtownabbey within the same planning cycle, DHL Express was separately approved at Houston Business Park in March 2026 for a 150-job facility, reflects the Belfast metropolitan area's emergence as a preferred logistics investment location, with road connectivity, access to port and airport infrastructure and available zoned industrial land combining to attract tier-one global operators.

For the sector, the £18 million DHL warehouse is the largest single logistics investment in Northern Ireland's recent planning pipeline, confirming Belfast's metropolitan logistics market as capable of hosting dedicated retail distribution operations at a scale comparable to leading UK regional centres.

Source: northernirelandworld.com / endole.co.uk / dhl.com / find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk