GLS Belgium has invested €2.6 million in a new ecological depot in Habay, a Walloon municipalityof Belgium located in the province of Luxembourg, with the start of operations scheduled for
mid-2013.This is the firm’s second ecological depot in the country and has been designed for separatehandling of parcels and freight mainly serving the Belgian province of Luxemburg along withtransshipments to the neighbouring duchy of Luxemburg due to its close proximity.
With a hall of around 2,000 sqm, the Habay site will be equipped with ten loading docks forfreight shipments and 35 for the parcels. In the initial stage, the depot will have the capacity tosort 5,500 parcels daily which can be increased by 30%, if necessary.
“We are adjusting our structure to the increasing number of parcels in order to continueoffering a high service quality to our customers,” Luc De Schrijver, General Manager Belux GLS,said. The state-of-the-art scanners and a video surveillance system will ensure the security ofparcels and freight shipments.
Similar to the first ecological depot in Belgium in Puurs, which went into operation some monthsago, the site in Habay will be optimised according to ecological criteria. It is the twelfth‘green’ site of the GLS Group in Europe.
As part of its environmental initiative ‘Think Green’, GLS has been focusing on sustainableconstruction while preserving resources. Accordingly, the Habay depot will have a heat pump as itsprimary heating source and a device for using rainwater for industrial purposes. Upon completion,the roof will be equipped with a solar system.
A subsidiary of the GLS Group, GLS Belgium Distribution offers solutions for freight shipmentsnationwide and across Europe, including oversized shipments and pallets up to 600 kg. With a fleetof 16,510 vehicles and 13,400 staff, the GLS Group transported 375 million parcels during thefinancial year 2011/2012 with turnover reaching €1.81 billion.
