DPD yesterday officially opened “Europe's largest and most technically advanced parcel sorting hub” at Hinckley in Leicestershire, central England, with a special ceremony in front of 400 guests, including representatives of many of the largest retail names in the UK.
Philippe Wahl, Chairman and CEO of La Poste, performed the official opening, while HM Lord-Lieutenant of Leicestershire, Jennifer, Lady Gretton JP, was also on hand to present DPD with the Queen's Award for Enterprise, on behalf of Her Majesty the Queen. Leicester-born footballer and television presenter Gary Lineker was the guest of honour.
The giant new £100m superhub – which is capable of sorting 720,000 parcels per night – was delivered on time and on budget and will be fully operational ahead of this year's Black Friday and Christmas Peak period, DPD UK said.
In total, the project will create 1,000 new, full-time jobs at the facility, which lies close to the M69 motorway. The hub features a 3,000 metre long automated sorter, designed by conveyer specialists Beumer, and has 264 loading dock doors.
Dwain McDonald, DPD UK's CEO, commented: "Our new Hinckley superhub is an absolutely stunning building and the whole project is a credit to everyone involved. I'm incredibly proud of my team and what we have achieved, so it was real honour to be able to invite Her Majesty's Lord-Lieutenant of Leicestershire, Gary Lineker and our retail customers to see the facility for themselves.
"The superhub is way beyond anything else in the UK and gives us significant scope to expand in the next few years. We've been consistently investing in our network and growing our capacity for some time now to ensure we stay well ahead of the increasing demand for DPD's services. We've also opened around 20 new depots in the UK in the last two years, half of them being brand new purpose-built developments. But Hinckley is the clearest signal yet of our intent.
"Our retail customers already know the quality of our service compared to the rest of the next-day delivery market, today they also saw the scale of our ambition and the level of investment we are making on their behalf."
DPD's UK growth is based on its Predict and Follow My Parcel services which give customers advanced notification of a one hour delivery slot, and allows them to track their driver on a map, or access five ‘in-flight' delivery options if they can't be home to accept their parcel. In 2015, the company also introduced DPD Pickup – a network of 2,500 parcel shops – allowing customers to divert deliveries to a convenient pick-up point, close to their home or work.
