Building work has begun on New Zealand Post Group's purpose-built, overnight courier, parcels, processing and distribution hub at Christchurch Airport’s Dakota Park.
New Zealand Post said it had recently finalised an agreement with Christchurch International Airport Limited for the lease of a new building adjacent to a new runway facility that services its upgraded air fleet.
New Zealand Post Chief Operating Officer, Service Delivery, Ashley Smout, said the new building, to be named 'The Southern Operations Centre,' is scheduled for completion in May 2017 and will be a significant, strategic asset for the Group.
“The Southern Operations Centre will house our Courier Post and Pace express and courier operations. It will form an important part of the backbone of New Zealand Post Group’s overnight courier and parcels network, along with the Waikato Operations Centre in Hamilton, the Auckland Operations Centre in Highbrook and the national road and air fleets,” he explained.
“It will serve as our South Island transport and processing hub and enable us to introduce planned innovations and new services to give customers more control over and quicker processing of their parcels.”
The new hub will offer building space covering 14,628 sqm compared with 5,000 sqm at the current Wairakei Road (Christchurch) site.
There is also additional space for growth, NZ Post having secured first rights to the 25,000 sqm of adjacent land to the east of the site should this be required for any group expansion in the future.
The new Centre will support a fleet of 80 courriers as well as 14 air movements and 46 line haul movements in a 24-hour period.
Its facilities will include automated sorting equipment capable of processing parcels at up to 6,000 pieces per hour.
“New Zealand Post Group’s investment at the site is more than NZ$8 million, including a significant investment in new automated parcel sorting technology, similar to what we have in Auckland,” Smout said. The lease on the building runs until 2026, with options to extend it.
The group underlined that "for current and future customers, the new technology and location will mean: increased processing speed and accuracy of tracked items, 'in-flight redirections' to automatically intercept and retrieve identified parcels, improved customer service visibility through new scan footprints of consignments, mproved efficiencies, product handling and security and the best combination of air and road transport links for improved efficiency and speed."
It added that until 2017 it is "business as usual for our logistics and processing teams in Christchurch."
