DHL is close to sealing customer contracts for a newly-completed €14 million ‘end of runway’logistics facility at its Leipzig air hub that offers users later cut-off times and faster
time-to-market delivery, according to executives.DHL Supply Chain aims to win technology, life sciences, manufacturing and automotivecompanies to use the brand-new 15,000 sqm shared-user facility for warehousing and expressdistribution of high-value small shipments such as electronics, medical devices and spare parts.
“We are investing ahead of the curve. Lots of discussions are going on at present,” GrahamInglis, DHL Supply Chain CEO EMEA, told journalists at the facility last week. Economic austerityis “slowing down decision-making,” he admitted, but stressed the company hopes to seal the firstcustomer contracts for the facility very soon.
The DHL Supply Chain executive also said that the global market leader is growing faster thanthe overall worldwide contract logistics market at present, expects €1 billion worth of newbusiness signings this year for the fourth year in a row and is improving its profit margins. Thedivision is “resilient” to economic downturn thanks to a broad mix of customers and markets,long-term contracts and an asset-light, flexible-cost operating model, he stressed.
Under the “End of Runway” concept, DHL will use the warehouse for storage, as a cross-dockfor air freight shipments and for Service Parts Logistics and other added-value services. Shipmentscan be directly injected into the express network at the Leipzig air hub for time-definite deliveryby air or day-definite/deferred delivery by road.
Key benefits from the new facility included centralised inventory, shared infrastructure,added-value services, delivery to major European destinations by 09.00 next-day and multi-modaltransportation options through the different DHL divisions, Inglis explained.
John Farrell, president of DHL’s Global Service Logistics business, said companies movingtheir central warehouses to Leipzig could reduce costs by as much as 14 per cent thanks to lowerlocal labour and land costs, reduced transportation and flexible timing.
Robert Kirubi, DSC’s vice president business development for the technology sector, whopresented DHL’s strategy for the technology sector, highlighted the potential to merge goods intransit coming from Asia and near-shoring production sites at the Leipzig facility and thendistribute throughout Europe.
DHL Express operates between 55 and 60 daily flights at its Leipzig European air hub, whichhandles about 90 per cent of its European shipments, accounting for some 2,000 tonnes a day. Overthe last year the company has extended the ramp area to create parking space for four wide-body oreight narrow-body freighters and put a container stacker to store up to 740 ULDs from weathereffects into operation.
