Posted in Minoli
28th March 2022
The Expansion of Minoli Headquarters Oxford
Over the last five years, the site of Minoli’s Oxford Headquarters has near doubled. Through the 1990s and early 2000s there were significant developments on the existing site, with new warehousing, showrooms, offices and administration space, but the most recent expansions have been through acquisition.
Firstly, in 2016 Minoli purchased the plot of land and buildings on the corner opposite their HQ as additional storage for their ever-expanding ranges. Until the acquisition, the site was operated by a tyre merchant but prior to that it was Securicor’s main cash depot for the region. As a legacy from that tenure, within the ground floor structure to this day remains an impressive vault with a huge, thick-gauge steel door and reinforced locking bolt mechanism.
As one looks across from the main Minoli office building, another feature of Transport Way is quite unmissable. Bordering Minoli’s new storage site and Watlington Way stands Transco’s disused Gas Holder Station (in the past known as a Gasometer).
These mighty structures were first built and used at the end of the 19th Century, when each town and city were supplied gas which was stored and distributed by regional companies. However, with the advent of nationalisation and access to the piped ‘North Sea’ gas becoming widespread, the gas holders have almost all disappeared. The particular type of Gasometer in Cowley expands and contracts vertically using a spiral guide system, with no external frame, and the design uses water to keep the sections airtight. No Smoking on site, please!
Many of these units are now deemed to be redundant and this Cowley landmark is scheduled for demolition.
More recently, in 2018, Minoli acquired the adjacent site and buildings previously occupied by Eyre & Elliston Electrical Wholesalers. This was initially purchased to accommodate storage of excess stocks and some of the large quantity inventories we hold for automotive manufacturers and leading housebuilders. It also provided welcome additional hardstanding on which Minoli’s growing vehicle fleet could manoeuvre.
Since then, however, a part of the premises has been repurposed into the new Minoli Outlet store, with a retail showroom and allocation of space within the warehousing. With fresh branding, landscaping and extensive car parking, we’re now welcoming retail and local trade customers to explore the selected ranges that are discounted for clearance, offering value beyond compare.
In talking about the adjacent sites that Minoli have acquired, it would perhaps be courteous to also mention our other notable neighbours.
On Transport Way resides Oxford BioMedica PLC who we can thank for their participation in helping produce significant quantities of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine. At the other end of the road is the vast Unipart Headquarters, with roots in manufacturing automotive components but now reinvented as a multinational logistics, supply chain and consultancy company. The worldwide parts supply network for illustrious companies such as McLaren Automotive and Rolls Royce is based here in Cowley.
Minoli are also located alongside what is now the impressive BMW / MINI plant. Previous models to be produced at the facility include Morris, Austin-Healey, MG and Rover and with over 100 years of vehicle production history, it is thought be the longest running mass-production plant in the UK.
Another previous tenant of the plant was British Leyland, with whom Minoli have had some quite recent association. In December 2021, the team at Leyland Trucks presented Minoli with their brand new 16-tonne GVW DAF LF 210, the 500,000th vehicle to be produced by the manufacturer, now based in Lancashire.
With our own credentials in supplying tiles for car showrooms since the 1960s, and having worked with some 15 car brands, spanning prestige to popular, we fit in well with our motor industry cohort. And as one of the tile industry’s original and award-winning distributors, we feel very much at home on a street aptly named Transport Way.
Image Credits 3rd Parties:
Cowley gasometer (gas holder) – David Hawgood – from Wikimedia Commons (free media)
Morris and Mini at Cowley – Business Motoring.co.uk
Minoli DAF Handover – Leyland Trucks