Brakes has unveiled plans to open a new depot in Glasgow.

The foodservice giant revealed the plans in an investor presentation following its first-quarter results. It said construction had begun on a 173,000 sq ft depot in the city as well as a smaller 67,000 sq ft site in Toulouse, France.

The Glasgow site will be Brakes’ third multi-temperature depot following the opening of sites in Warrington and Reading last year.

Brakes said it would be able to offer multi-temperature deliveries to all customers when Glasgow opened later this year.

Brakes also said it was now three years into a five-year strategic plan and had so far spent 64% of the budget, but more than 90% of the benefits were still to come.

The rollout of multi-temperature deliveries will help Brakes start to deliver the efficiencies envisaged under the plan towards the end of 2014.

In the first quarter, Brakes grew sales by 4% to £736.1m and adjusted EBITDA increased by 4.9% to £25.7m.

The improved profit figure helped the group to improve its debt/EBITDA ratio from 7.5% last year to 7.2%. However, it still has a debt pile of more than £1bn.

Last week, Brakes successfully issued a fixed-rate £260m bond at 7.125% and floating rate €150m bond, both due in 2018, as part of a continued refinancing to shift its debt from bank loans to bonds.

Grant Thornton said this week that food companies were turning to alternative sources of finance that typically offered longer terms and increased flexibility.

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