La Poste’s French domestic express subsidiary Chronopost has further extended its regional networkunder its ongoing network restructuring.
Chronopost said it has opened a new facility close to Nimes to strengthen its presence in thesouthern region of Languedoc-Roussillon. The facility will handle the distribution of some 1,200parcels daily and 250 collections. This is its 16th opening in France this year, including theregional hub at Lyon-Corbas and a 2,600 sqm depot in Marseille.
Chronopost, which is restructuring its domestic network around five hubs and 68 localcentres, has invested EUR 120 million in the network since 2005. Its new EUR 50 million, 13,000 sqmnational hub at Chilly-Mazarin, south of Paris, due to open in early 2008, will handle about 60% ofits domestic shipments.
Meanwhile, Exapaq, the small parcels carrier acquired by La Poste in early 2006, opened twonew facilities strategically located for traffic to Germany and Italy earlier this year, giving itssix hubs across France with total capacity to handle 260,000 packages per day.
The fully-automated sorting centre at Beaune in Burgundy, with maximum capacity of 12,000packages per hour, serves as a connection point with Germany and the DPD network. The Saint-Ramberthub, in the Drome region close to the Italian border, acts as an entry portal for all packagescoming from Italy and as an exit portal for packages headed for Italy and Spain. This mechanizedsorting centre has a maximum processing capacity of 8,000 packages per hour.
