Deutsche Post DHL will start construction of a large-scale new parcel sorting centre in Bochum-Laer, North-Rhine Westphalia, on the site of the former Opel factory, in summer 2017 after signing a contract to buy the land from local organisation Bochum Perspektive 2022 GmbH.
A Deutsche Post DHL spokesman confirmed to CEP-Research that the company is investing a double-digit million sum in the facility, as initially planned. It is due to become operational in 2019 creating 600 jobs in the region.
“We will create around 600 jobs that will be bound by collective labour agreements. We will employ staff for loading and unloading, technicians with different requirements and management staff. These different requirements will be reflected accordingly in the wage spectrum,” he said.
Referring to construction works that were initially due to start in 2016, the spokesman told CEP-Research: “The construction works are (and were) planned directly after the handover of the land, ready for construction. Due to restoration and preparation of the land, we have set summer 2017 as the start of the construction.”
“With the planned parcel sorting centre, the location of Bochum will become one of our most powerful sites in Germany and Europe,” he concluded.
With the Opel production site having closed at the end of 2014, DHL will use the 140,000 sqm area for constructing the large-scale parcel sorting centre with capacity to sort 50,000 parcels per hour.
Uwe Brinks, Chief Production Officer of Deutsche Post DHL, said: "Today, we are already able to handle over 1 million parcels at our parcel centres during each hour of operations. With the new site in Bochum, we create an important basis to further increase the efficiency of our parcels network in the long term, thereby securing our competitiveness and creating many jobs in the region.
"The new site in Bochum provides ideal access for our parcel network to one of the largest conurbations in Europe. The establishment of an ultra-modern and future-proof facility situated in the Ruhr area offers especially well-qualified candidates from across the region long-term prospects," he added.
The industrial and commercial area in Bochum-Laer covers 680,000 sqm in total, of which about 450,000 sqm can be used for industrial and commercial purposes. The site will be divided in three construction phases in the coming years with the aim to attract especially small and medium-sized, technology-oriented companies.
"12 months before the first properties can be handed over for construction, 30% of all available industrial real estates have already been sold,” Enno Fuchs, managing director of Bochum Perspective 2022 GmbH, said. “We are confident that other investors will soon follow the example of our anchor investor DHL".
Bochum Mayor Thomas Eiskirch commented: "With DHL, Bochum wins a leading logistics provider in technology terms in Germany who sets standards. I am confident that DHL will also benefit in many ways from Bochum as a site of knowledge.”
In April 2014, Deutsche Post DHL signed an agreement with the German car manufacturer Adam Opel AG to acquire the area of the Opel factory in Bochum. In February of the same year, Opel started a project “Initiative Career Opportunities for Bochum employees”, which Deutsche Post DHL has also been participating in. This actively promotes the qualifications and flexibility of the Opel employees to open up new career opportunities for them at well-known companies.
