DHL Express France has opened a new, expanded international hub at the airport of Marseille and added a new direct flight from France to Algeria with effect from today to support development of direct trade with North African countries.
Work on expansion and modernisation of the hub started in January 2015, with an investment of €8 million. It more than doubles the warehouse area from 1,300 sqm to 3,000 sqm, with office space also doubling from 150 sqm to 300 sqm and nearly 4,200 sqm in outdoor space. The number of employees at the facility will also nearly double from 42 in the beginning of 2015 to 84 by the end of February this year when the recruitment process is finished.
This expansion responds to the growing volume flows passing each day through the hub. Between 2014 and 2015, the number of import and export parcels handled at the site grew by 20%, mainly due to the growth of trade flows with Tunisia and Malta.
The new hub in Marseille features state-of-the-art technology to optimise customer service and provide better working environment for employees. It is equipped with a fully-motorised sorting system making it possible to handle up to 5,500 parcels per hour compared to 1,850 parcels before, which almost triples the parcel sorting capacity of the previous facility. This capacity is expected to considerably increase the number of parcels sorted on a daily basis which is today around 7,000-8,000 parcels daily for import (25-30 tons of cargo) and 2,000-2,500 parcels for export (7-8 tons).
The site is also equipped with WiFi scanners to identify parcels in real time in the warehouse, X-ray machines, new conveyors, lifting ramps and platforms to reduce parcel handling and optimise processing time.
Michel Akavi, DHL Express France CEO, said: “Our Marseille hub plays a key role in our trade with Maghreb countries. By increasing human and material resources to deal with these flows, we are responding to volume growth and bringing additional service quality to our customers. This investment reflects the importance that DHL attaches to France in its international infrastructure.”
The Marseille hub is one of DHL’s 19 regional hubs worldwide and one of the two hubs in France, along with the site at Roissy Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.
Hervé Allié, Managing Director of DHL Hubs France, commented: “This new hub will have a decisive impact on the network. It will in particular support the hubs in Leipzig and Brussels. Thanks to its new facilities, we are now able to process the parcels from Leipzig and Brussels, which was not the case before. The platform of Marseille will therefore relieve the sorting activities at these two sites.”
DHL Express has been present in the region for 40 years and installed its site at the airport of Marseille in 1997. In 2013, in response to the volume growth, DHL transferred part of its sorting and distribution activities at the airport to a new depot in Vitrolles, close to Aix-en-Provence. The aim was to expand its air transport and customs clearance activities at the airport. DHL Express operates two major sites in the Marseille region, employing over 130 employees locally.
