DHL Express New Zealand is upgrading its gateway facility in Auckland due to strong ongoing demandfor inbound freight from around the country, with an investment of €9.9 million and 15-20
additional staff to be hired at the site this year.The company said the upgraded facility which is due to be fully operational in Q4 2015 willlink all of New Zealand to its network of 220 countries and territories globally enabling NewZealand importers and exporters to trade in the global marketplace more efficiently than everbefore.
In concrete terms, DHL is undergoing an extensive renovation of its Auckland gateway facilityto double the size of its processing capacity to 4,000 shipments per hour, up from around 2,400previously. The warehouse space will be expanded to approximately 5,000 sqm, with the sortingcapacity to increase by 192 per cent.
This capacity increase is made possible through state-of-the-art parcel handling equipmentwhich enables automated processing with the aim to reduce double handling, both maintaining theintegrity of the shipment and increasing efficiency and throughput. Each parcel will only betouched twice during processing – once for unload and once for reload, DHL specified.
Tim Baxter, DHL Express New Zealand Country Manager, said the facility is part of DHL’slong-term strategy to concentrate on the customer. “Back in 2009, we developed a five-year planwhich focused on investing in our network capabilities to offer our customers the best access tothe global economy.
“As we are now experiencing unprecedented customer demand, this gateway facility is thelogical next step in that investment. It will enable us to provide faster and more efficientprocessing of shipments, partly thanks to the state-of-the-art automated process that we areimplementing, meaning ultimately our customers will reap the rewards,” he added.
Auckland Airport is the developer and owner of the land from which DHL Express will lease thecompleted (and extended) facility.
