Industrial and logistics sector reports strongest take-up in 18 months
logistics space
taken up in Dublin by companies in the first half of the year was up 54 per cent on the same period last year, according to new data from commercial property firm
CBRE Ireland
.
The group confirmed that a total of 112,845 sq m of industrial and logistics take-up was completed over the six month period.
The second quarter totalled 57,304 sq m, which was a 3 per cent increase on the first quarter, as deal flow continued to recover following a slow 2024.
'Following some initial hesitancy in the aftermath of the April 2nd tariff announcements in the US, occupiers refocused as the quarter progressed and began to move ahead with plans to lease and acquire space in Dublin in advance of their competitors,' CBRE said.
READ MORE
As a result, the second quarter saw the highest quarterly level of take-up since the last three months of 2023.
Third-party logistics groups continued to be 'particularly active', with a number of parties pursuing and winning new contracts, which in turn led to requirements for new facilities.
Outside of larger-scale deals, there were a number of requirements for units and sites in the multi-let industrial and industrial open storage sectors, respectively. The rise in demand for the latter area in Dublin follows a trend seen in the UK market in recent years.
CBRE said the outlook for deals for the second half of the year in Dublin looks 'healthy', with a number of high-profile transactions 'progressing well' and expected to complete in the coming months.
Among them is an agreement for lease that has been signed at M7 Real Estate's Ballymount Logistics Hub, which is expected to boost take-up in the second half.
That deal, among others, will leave the market on course for annual take-up of over 200,000 sq m in 2025, which would represent at least a one-third uplift on last year.
'Despite some macroeconomic uncertainty, we continue to record strong occupier demand, particularly from third-party logistics providers seeking to expand their distribution footprint in Dublin,' Garrett McClean, executive director and head of industrial and logistics at CBRE, said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
3 hours ago
- Irish Times
Chef working for Camile restaurant awarded €39,000 by WRC after dispute over pay and time off
A chef working at a Cork branch of restaurant chain Camile has been awarded more than €39,000 at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC). The dispute arose when the employee was told he was being moved to Dublin weeks after attempting to claim three days' statutory sick leave, the hearing was told. Sujeer Thayyil had been employed since April 2019 by Santry Food Services, which is owned by Pramod Thankappan and Saritha Pramod and operates five Camile branches under franchise arrangements. In October 2023 he sought three days' statutory sick pay amounting to €308.70 for certified leave, a hearing at the WRC was told. READ MORE But the request was not acknowledged by management, who then told him he was being moved with immediate effect from Bishopstown, Cork, where he was normally based, to work in a Dublin branch, the WRC heard. The hearing, overseen by WRC adjudication officer Breiffni O'Neill, was told he had not received any clear explanation of what had prompted the instruction to relocate. Mr Thayyil, an Indian national, said he was not in a position to move as he could not find accommodation in Dublin for himself and his family without financial support from the company. It said it did not provide relocation expenses. The company then said it would move him to the company's Douglas branch in Cork, but when he reported for work there it became clear he had been demoted and would work as second chef rather than chef de partie with his pay reduced from €37,180 a year to €35,000. He was also told he would be subject to a six-month probation period despite having already worked for the company for four years. A stand-off developed between the two sides and on December 28th the company emailed Mr Thayyil asking that he confirm his willingness to work. He said he was ready to work, but did not accept the demotion and would do so under protest. The hearing, at which the chef was represented by Sylwia Nowakowska of the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland, heard his response was not acknowledged and on February 19th the complainant sent an email seeking to clarify whether he had been dismissed. This was also, he said, ignored. The following month he lodged complaints alleging a list of employment law breaches including unfair dismissal, non-payment of Sunday premiums, non-payment for hours in excess of his contracted 39-hour working week, non-payment for public holidays and breaches of regulations related to breaks and days off. The company, represented by Conor White, conceded breaches in relation to public holidays, annual leave and rest days. But he argued Mr Thayyil had been responsible for ensuring he took his breaks and that he was paid all of the money owed in relation to some of the other claims, including the 10 per cent Sunday premium, which, it said, had been factored into his hourly pay. Mr Thayyil said this was not possible as his hourly pay had initially been set at the minimum required to obtain a work permit and so could not include any premiums. In his decision, the adjudicating officer found eight of the 10 complaints before the hearing to be well-founded though not the one taken under section eight of the Unfair Dismissals Act, 1977. 'When the complainant notified the respondent of his intention to file a complaint with the WRC, the respondent replied the same day stating that the complainant's contractual position remained available to him … which is inconsistent with any suggestion that the complainant had been dismissed,' Mr O'Neill said. In relation to the eight complaints upheld, however, he ordered the payment of back money or compensation totalling €39,413.98 which included the €308.70 in sick pay.
Irish Times
5 hours ago
- Irish Times
Bord Gáis profit dips to €39m in first half of 2025
Bord Gáis Energy made a profit of €39 million in the first half of 2025 as customers numbers grew and commodity prices eased. That compared to a profit of €50 million in the first half of 2024. Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation were £40 million (€46.1 million), down 22 per cent on the previous year's £51 million. Customer numbers grew 3 per cent in the first six months of the year, the company said, reaching 531,000. READ MORE The Centrica-owned company is currently undergoing a €1 billion investment programme in strategic infrastructure, bolstering supply security and integrating renewable energy assets, including the development of two hydrogen-capable 100MW gas peaking plants in Athlone and Dublin, and a 334MW open cycle gas turbine project in Galway. It also completed the acquisition of solar PV company Swyft Energy in January, and earlier this month announced multiple power purchase agreements with renewable developers that added more than 629MW of capacity. 'We remain focused on creating value through our integrated model – supporting customers, investing in energy security, and driving decarbonisation,' said Dave Kirwan, managing director of Bord Gáis Energy. 'Our parent company Centrica's capital investment is enabling us to power Ireland's economic growth and green transition. This will play an important role in delivering a green, secure and competitive energy sector for Ireland.' Parent group Centrica reported adjusted operating profit of £549 million, saying the company had put in a 'resilient performance' in a challenging market.
Irish Times
6 hours ago
- Irish Times
Alphabet boosted by AI, cloud demand as spending needs skyrocket
Alphabet said demand for artificial intelligence (AI) products boosted quarterly sales, and now requires an extreme increase in capital spending – heightening pressure on the company to justify the cost of keeping up in the AI race. Google's parent company said 2025 capital expenditures will be $85 billion (€72 billion), or $10 billion greater than an earlier forecast. Although Alphabet beat expectations for second-quarter revenue and profit, its stock initially sank in after-hours trading, then rebounded after chief executive Sundar Pichai explained that the investments are necessary in order to keep up with customer needs. 'Our AI infrastructure investments are crucial to meeting the growth in demand from cloud customers,' he said on a call Wednesday following the report. As Microsoft, start-up OpenAI, Meta Platforms and others continue to pour money into AI, Alphabet has little choice but to follow suit, analysts said. The race is particularly urgent for Google: competitors are building chatbots that may eventually appeal to consumers more than its flagship search product. 'Google's hand is forced by OpenAI to spend tremendously on AI's infrastructure and applications,' said Nikhil Lai, an analyst at Forrester. The recent quarter was strong almost across the board for Alphabet. Sales, excluding partner payouts, climbed to $81.7 billion, Alphabet said in a statement, topping analysts' projections of $79.6 billion on average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Alphabet is counting on its core search advertising juggernaut and growing cloud computing business to support its spiralling spending on AI. Employees are under pressure to bring AI products to market faster, from new modes of search to tools for cloud customers. 'We are seeing significant demand for our comprehensive AI product portfolio,' Pichai said. Chief financial officer Anat Ashkenazi said capital expenditures will rise yet again next year, without providing details. The strain of the AI race could be spotted elsewhere in the company's results. Ashkenazi attributed the company's 16% jump in spending on research and development to increases in pay packages for key employees. Meta has been making unprecedented compensation offers as it seeks to woo researchers for its superintelligence lab, driving up the price for key employees across the industry. Earlier this month, Google struck a deal to pay about $2.4 billion for top talent and licensing rights from artificial intelligence coding start-up Windsurf. Yet money isn't the only consideration for researchers when deciding where to work, Pichai said. Top talent in the field want 'to really be at the frontier driving progress,' in addition to craving access to computing power and talented peers, Pichai said. 'It's a combination of all of that and using it to drive impact. And I think we are pretty competitive on all those fronts.' Google's cloud-computing unit reported quarterly revenue of $13.6 billion and operating income of $2.83 billion, topping analysts' projections. Google remains in third place in this market, after Microsoft and Amazon, but the company's prowess in AI has helped it score client wins. The unit is widely viewed as Alphabet's strongest source of growth as the main search business matures. The centrepiece of the cloud offensive is Gemini, the AI model that Google is rapidly weaving across its vast product portfolio, and pushing to enterprise clients. Many AI experts were impressed by the release of a new version of the Gemini model earlier this year, but it still trails OpenAI's ChatGPT in adoption by most estimates. As Google faces mounting competition, it's also facing penalties for being dominant. Google's primary businesses are under threat of a break-up after US federal judges ruled that the company is maintaining illegal monopolies in search and some ad technology. Next month, Judge Amit Mehta is expected to deliver an order on the measures Google must take to restore competition in online search, though Google has said it plans to appeal the ruling. YouTube, Google's video site, posted $9.8 billion in second-quarter ad revenue, exceeding analysts' estimates of $9.56 billion. The unit, which draws most of its revenue from advertising, was expected to perform well thanks to its lead in livingroom streaming and heavy investments in podcasts. Alphabet's Other Bets, a collection of futuristic businesses that includes the self-driving car effort Waymo, generated $373 million in revenue, missing estimates for $429.1 million. Ashkenazi said Alphabet will continue devoting more resources to Waymo. Alphabet has been aggressively expanding the operations of Waymo, which may soon face increased competition as Tesla ramps up its robotaxi business. Earlier this month, Waymo more than doubled its service area in Austin, Tesla's home base, and said it would start collecting data in New York City in pursuit of a permit for testing. 'The team is testing across more than 10 cities this year, including New York and Philadelphia,' Pichai said. 'We hope to serve riders in all 10 in the future.' Google isn't alone in feeling pressure to show success from AI investment. Shortly after Pichai's Waymo comments, on the Tesla earnings call, chief executive Elon Musk started slamming Google's AI prowess. He said Tesla was 'actually much better than Google.' Investors might disagree; Tesla's shares fell. – Bloomberg
