DCG Logistics UK Limited - Coventry

The client:

DCG is a multinational logistics company providing industry leading e-commerce, international freight, domestic haulage and warehousing from their sites across England.

What we did:

We initially approached DCG about their Dartford warehouses as we believed there was an opportunity to reduce the business rates liability of those units. Upon contact with DCG this expanded into looking at their entire portfolio.

We took particular note of their Coventry warehouse. The lease stated a conflicting start date as to when DCG had begun being charged for the property and the rental value of the site vastly differed from the assigned rateable value.

This lead to a multifaceted approach where we simultaneously argued for the correct liability date with the local authority as well as arguing for a reduced rateable value with the Valuation Office Agency.

The result:

We had quick success arguing the correct liability date, saving DCG just shy of £50,000.

The Coventry warehouse had a rateable value of 2,020,000 with annual charges of over £1 million, meaning this was a complex and detailed valuation and success took slightly longer.

The Valuation Office Agency reduced the rateable value to 1,860,000 in response to our application at the Check stage. This created a further circa £170,000 in savings.

Whilst this was significant, we believed the rental value still supported a much lower rateable value so we proceeded to Challenge. We built a comprehensive case not just relying on rental analysis but also on local, comparable precedents.

Our Challenge was found to be well founded and the Valuation Office agreed with our proposal. This reduced the rateable value to 1,450,000, an almost 30% reduction from the initial rateable value, and saved DCG a further almost £650,000.

In total DCG have saved approaching £900,000 as a result of our work at their Coventry branch alone.

Find out more about DCG Logistics UK Limited