Itella, Finland Post’s rebranded international business division, is opening a new centre in St.Petersburg as part of its Russian expansion.
The 10,000 sqm facility, located in the western Utkina Zavod area of the city, will open inearly 2008 and focus on contract logistics services, including finishing services to prepare goodsfor delivery, service warehousing and delivery to the growing Russian market.
It follows the opening of a 20,000 sqm distribution hub north of Moscow by Finland Post,which is aiming to increase its capacity in the country tenfold in the next few years. The Russiancentres will link up to Itella’s terminal at Kotka, Finland.
St. Petersburg region is second only to Moscow in Russia for business opportunity, says thegroup.
“We are confident that demand for state-of-the-art warehousing facilities will remain high inRussia over the next few years. Itella Logistics intends to capitalise on this by continuing toincrease its contract logistics’ capacity in the Moscow and St. Petersburg regions,” said AkiOjanen, director of contract logistics at Itella.
Both Finnish and non-Finnish companies are interested in expanding in the Russian market,reflected by strong growth in demand for logistics services in the country, Itella said.
Finland Post rebranded its corporate services as Itella in nine northern European countries,including Russia, at the start of this year, while keeping its Posti name for traditional postaloperations in Finland.
