Canterbury Warehousing and Logistics operator MOVE Logistics is expanding into the $500million IPort Business Park industrial and logistics development at Rolleston.

MOVE's longterm lease of a purposebuilt warehouse in the 122-hectare business park will extend its warehousing in Canterbury from 50,000 square metres to 78,000 sq m – half of that by April next year, the balance around a year later.

The first stage of the IPort development included the sale of 27 hectares to Lyttelton Port Company in 2015 to develop its MidlandPort – and the warehouse will be located adjacent to the inland port.

MOVE MD Brendan Prendergast says the company has experienced "huge growth" and now employs over 350 staff and has 120 trucks carting freight nationwide.

The investment complements another MOVE warehouse at Ports of Auckland's inland port in Wiri, says Prendergast – "allowing us to offer our customers an end-to-end delivery service and, at the same time, reduce freight movements.

"We're particularly pleased that the IPort warehouse facility will deliver increased efficiency and cost savings to our customers, ranging from reduced container transportation costs, container triangulation benefits, access to rail and reduced overall supply chain costs."

The warehouse's open boundary to MidlandPort "will ensure our customers have direct connectivity to international markets."

The IPort warehouse expansion means that MOVE will be well prepared to support the growing agriculture sector.

IPort director Tim Carter says that "about 92% of Canterbury's exports transit through Rolleston, so IPort is a natural aggregation point" for road and rail connections west, south, and north of Christchurch.

And Lyttelton Port Company marketing manager Simon Munt says that MOVE customers will enjoy "efficiencies and cost savings by reducing container handling via LPC's direct rail link into Lyttelton Port.

"The rail line has removed a significant amount of trucks a day from Christchurch roads, which ultimately benefits the environment."