DHL Express Germany has started construction of a new facility at Hanover Airport with the total investment amounting to €32.5 million, in cooperation with the real estate company Adler Immobilien Investment GmbH.
The investment in the Hanover location is part of a comprehensive infrastructure programme under which DHL Express is modernising and expanding its production sites in Germany including Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Nuremberg, Freiburg and Mannheim.
The facility will combine the previously separate service station and the European gateway under one roof. It will be built by Adler Real Estate Investment on a 30,000 sqm industrial real estate at Airport Business Park East, with DHL Express operational and office space covering about 7,500 sqm. The relocation of the existing stations is planned for next spring.
From April 2016, the new location will bring together the service station connected to the national road and international air freight network and the gateway for day-definite express shipments that are transported via the European road network. Previously, these facilities were about 6 km apart.
"With the new building, we are eliminating the physical separation of the two stations and can thus reduce the transit traffic between them to zero. At the same time, we are creating through the use of a single fully-automated sorting system equally efficient processes for all traffic flows," explained Wolfgang P. Albeck, DHL Express Germany managing director.
The new facility will be equipped with a state-of-the art sorting system designed for shipping volumes of around 6,000 pieces per hour, as well as with direct loading and unloading access for 56 delivery vehicles at four so-called ‘fingers’. The sorting system had also been installed at the new locations of DHL Express in Stuttgart and Nuremberg. By doubling the previously available production area, DHL Express is responding to the expected volume growth in the region over the next few years.
The Hanover facility is expected to meet the safety requirements of the Transported Asset Protection Association (TAPA) and obtain the internationally recognised TAPA Class A certification as the highest security level in air transport.
The new location will also benefit the 200 employees who will work at the site as the workplaces comply with the current ergonomic standards while the office and social rooms will be much more modern and provide more comfort than it was the case at the previous facilities.
