DP World has agreed to acquire six contract logistics sites from GXO Logistics serving Asda, Sainsbury's and the Co-op, comprising approximately two million square feet of warehouse capacity across Doncaster, Rochdale, Charlton, Greenford, Wellingborough and Larne, transferring in September with more than 2,000 employees. The transfer is a CMA-mandated divestment arising from GXO's acquisition of Wincanton, with the consideration not publicly disclosed.

DP World is a Dubai-headquartered ports, logistics and maritime services group wholly owned by Dubai World, with 2025 revenues of $19.7 billion (€18 billion) and adjusted EBITDA of $5.3 billion. In the UK, DP World operates London Gateway and Southampton container terminals alongside an expanding logistics and freight forwarding operation.

GXO Logistics (NYSE: GXO) is a Greenwich, Connecticut-headquartered pure-play contract logistics company with 2025 revenues of approximately $8.5 billion (€7.8 billion); it completed the £762 million acquisition of Wincanton in April 2024. The CMA found the combined entity could reduce competition in outsourced grocery warehousing and ordered the divestment as a condition of clearance. GXO retains transport operations at all six sites.

The structural driver is the CMA's increasing willingness to impose operational divestments as a condition of clearing large logistics mergers, reflecting the regulator's assessment that grocery retail supply chain concentration poses a direct consumer harm risk.

The grocery logistics market in the UK is already highly concentrated: three operators controlled the overwhelming majority of outsourced grocery warehousing before the Wincanton acquisition. The mandated transfer creates a new scaled competitor in DP World rather than dispersing assets across smaller buyers, a deliberate regulatory outcome aimed at maintaining a viable fourth operator.

For DP World, the six sites complete a strategic pivot from pure port operator to end-to-end supply chain provider, adding ambient, chilled, frozen and bonded grocery capability alongside its port infrastructure. The Larne site in Northern Ireland adds a cross-border logistics dimension relevant to all-island grocery supply chains and post-Brexit trade flow management between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

For the sector, the transaction confirms that CMA divestment remedies in logistics are creating structural entry opportunities for port operators seeking inland supply chain integration, a pattern likely to inform how future logistics merger reviews are structured.

Source: dpworld.com / splash247.com / investing.com / esmmagazine.com