Tom Watkins

I joined Colliers International in 2012 for a years placement as part of my degree at Bristol UWE.  Since completing my degree I re-joined the Bristol office in 2014, and qualified as a Chartered Surveyor the following year, and then subseqnently managed to secure promotions year on year until being kindly awarded Directorship in  2019.

I am now Head of the South West Industrial & Logistics team based out of Bristol, specialising in the disposal and acquisition of industrial premises in the South West and South Wales regions, as well as providing specialist advice on industrial/warehouse  development.

Working on behalf of Screwfix alongside my national colleagues, I have contributed to them achieving their target of opening in excess of 60 new stores for consecutive years from 2014 - 2022 and I am now the key client contact for the acquisition mandate.

I was also involved in Panattoni Park, Swindon, where we acted for Panattoni to negotiate and agreed the pre-let of 2,400,000 sq ft to Amazon.  More recently, we are involved with Panattoni again on 73 acres in Avonmouth, where they intend to speculatively develop a two unit scheme comprising 410,000 sq ft and 880,000 sq ft, which will be one of the largest speculative schemes in the UK.

Elsewhere, I am currently acting for Tritax Symmetry on their new industrial/warehouse scheme adjacent to Junction 12 (M5), where they will be speculatively developing 168,000 sq ft and 252,500 sq ft respectively, with the balance available for design and build opportunities.

In other parts of the region, we acquired 6 acres of prime development land in Exeter for Graftongate funded by Paloma Capital. They decided to speculatively develop the scheme, and we managed to pre-let the whole site prior to practical completion to Selco Builders Warehouse, Easy Bathrooms and Ferrari Piston Services.

• Monmouth School
• University of the West of England stuydying BSc (Hons) Business in Property

• The Current Chairperson for the Industrial Agents Society Western Branch, representing industrial agents across the region.
• A Member of the Bristol Property Agents Society

To name but a few:

Disposals - DTZ Investors, Columbia Threadneedle, Aberdeen Standard, USS

Developers - Panattoni, Chancerygate, Trebor Developments, Cubex Land, Tritax Symmetry, Mountpark 

Acquisitions - Screwfix, Selco,  Huws Gray, Sunbelt Rentals, Bond International, Zimmer Biomet, Siemens

Alastair King, Development Director, Chancerygate

Tom is an enthusiastic, competent and reliable surveyor. He has a clear understanding of the industrial market, and has provided us with sound advice on the marketing of our schemes at Apollo Park in Yate, Vertex Park in Emersons Green, Furlong Park in Bishops Cleeve and Festival Park in Kingsditch. Tom has subsequently managed to introduce a number of parties to these estates, and successfully negotiate some good terms for us. He also regularly introduces new land opportunities through, so we are always confident that we're one of the first to know when there's new land coming forward in the South West.

Elliot Herbertson, Associate Director, DTZ Investors

We appointed Colliers, and subsequently Tom, as marketing agents on Beeches Industrial Estate in Yate when we purchased the estate in January 2016. I had previously dealt with Tom when he represented Screwfix when they acquired a unit on industrial estate in Cardiff also owned by Strathclyde Pension Fund, but he had not acted for DTZIM previously. Since then we appointed Tom as one of our marketing agents, and he has contributed significantly to the recent success of the estate with sound advice and, most importantly, lettings of three industrial/warehouse units within the past six months.

Jonathan Hodge, Acquisition Manager, Screwfix

Tom has worked on the Screwfix account now for a number of years. During this time, he has directly contributed to enabling us to achieve a stretching national acquisitions target of 60 trade counters per annum through; diligence, attention to detail and a proactive approach to his work. I have no doubt that he is always on the lookout for a new Screwfix opportunity and his tenacity has helped us convert opportunities that may have otherwise been missed.