UK retailer Kingfisher, owner of B&Q stores, has signed a colocation deal with SSE Data Centres, part of Scottish and Southern Energy, for a dedicated data centre pod as part of a migration project.

The firm said it would move infrastructure from 'a number of existing data centres.'

SSE acquired its Fareham-based data centre business in May 2009 for around £5 million in cash from Cantono Data Centre Services.

The site has 2,000 racks in 80,000 sq ft of capacity and 15MW (megawatts) of power. It boasts one of the UK's largest rooftop solar photovoltaic installations. The contract was awarded following an exhaustive procurement process in which Kingfisher, the leading home improvement and DIY retail group, compared self-build and a number of third party provider options, SSE said in a statement.

Adrian Pike, SSE's Managing Director of Contracting and Telecoms, said: "SSE is the first utility company in the UK to offer co-location data centres, and I am very pleased to have secured this contract just three months after acquiring the facility at Fareham. Kingfisher has a strong commitment to reducing carbon emissions, and the environmental credentials of our data centre supports that ambition. I believe our ability to offer this plus a bespoke service to customers has helped us to win this contract and should help us to win other contracts in the future."

Mike Bell, Kingfisher's IT Director, said: "We are pleased to have found a local Data centre facility that can support our current and future hosting requirements in both a cost and environmentally efficient manor. I look forward to developing the relationship with SSE over the medium to long term to deliver on-going and increased benefits to Kingfisher.

Financial details were not disclosed.