The Aldi supermarket chain has gained permission to build a 1.3 million sq ft warehousing and office complex in the National Forest.
The chain said the national distribution hub in west Leicestershire – about five miles from the M1 and right in the centre of the country – could lead to 750 new jobs.
The warehouse on a 72 acre site at Nailstone Colliery, is 12 miles west of Leicester, and will stand around 100 ft high when built.
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There would be around 100 HGV bays at the front and more than 40 at the rear.
The entrance will be linked by a bridge going over the loading area, and there will be around 600 car parking spaces as well as a 238 space HGV waiting area.
There will also be vehicle maintenance facilities, and substations to power it.
Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council has granted planning approval, as long as various conditions are met including ensuring none of the buildings is more than 33 m (around 108ft) high, any contamination of the land is addressed and local residents are not affected by dust, smell, noise, smoke or light pollution during construction.
Any potential landfill gas must also be addressed and flood risk assessments done.
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The planning application said the site would operate 24 hours a day, 365 days per year on a three shift pattern.
During a typical peak morning period between 8-9am, around 89 cars and 105 HGVs would access the site.
In the peak evening hour from 5pm that could be 79 cars and 94 HGVs.
The documents state there is already planning permission for three warehouses on the site, but the new warehouse would be almost twice as high.
Aldi said jobs would range from site, section and deputy management roles, office assistants, warehouse operatives and assistants, maintenance and equipment staff and engineers as well as transport managers and drivers.
There would also be administration and security roles.
The supermarket chain – which has its headquarters 20 miles away in Atherstone – said it would be a “high spec, high quality, semi-automated, logistic warehouse distribution centre” with two floors of offices.
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Designers at STOAS Architects said they had to strike a balance between the need for a big national base and the local surroundings.
A design statement from them said: “The large warehouse volume required achieves the performance requirements for the intended use and measures to mitigate its impact have been carefully considered and applied to ensure its impact on the wider context is minimised through the treatment of the elevations.
“The surrounding country park landscaping will also provide natural softening of the building and this will inform the on-site landscaping.
“The business need for the NDC (National Distribution Centre) is to become the fulcrum of Aldi’s logistics infrastructure and will be critical to support Aldi’s national store network growth as they continue to bring their mix of fantastic quality and great value products to customers in the most competitive food market in the world.
“The NDC is designed to complement Aldi’s current Regional Distribution Centre network by receiving multiple full loads of product from suppliers, which allows the consolidation of stock.
“A large quantity of stock in one centre is more efficient than small quantities in a large number of centres.
“This process allows volume to drive efficiency and reduce overall stock deliveries, decreasing road miles and therefore Aldi’s carbon footprint.
“The introduction of the NDC will allow Aldi to link its existing RDCs to this new facility and, in some cases, share fleet in the process, therefore, reducing Aldi’s carbon footprint further.
“This will also allow Aldi to explore multi-modal transport by linking ocean, rail and road freight to increase the efficiency in Aldi’s supply chain.
“The building uses sustainable materials and will include a number of energy efficient technologies including PV’s, LED lighting, water recycling and a building management system to monitor energy usage over its lifetime.”
The development in an area called Interlink South, sits in the former north west Leicestershire coal mining heartland, which has benefitted from millions of pounds of European support in recent decades.
Neighbours with operations within a couple of miles include Amazon, Pall-Ex, Ibstock Brick and Barratt Developments.