DHL has broken ground on a new €25 million express facility in the Austrian city of Linz and signed a contract to buy land in the Vienna airport region for a new freight logistics hub.
The new DHL Express branch at Linz-Hörsching Airport covering around 9,000 sqm will combine two smaller existing locations with a total of 180 staff and over 70 couriers and should open in April 2019. With the capacity to handle up to 22 million parcels a year, it will be DHL’s largest and most efficient sorting centre for express shipments in Austria.
Ralf Schweighöfer, Managing Director of DHL Express Austria, underlined the extraordinary importance of the project for his customers and for the region. "Combining the units at Linz airport and the domestic hub in Franzosenhausweg creates numerous synergies and the highest quality advantages for our customers and the dispatch processing in our company’s network.“
"The new combined building is a very important gateway to the international markets and to Austria. Business customers from the region would also benefit directly from the proximity of the airport, as their shipments can be picked up at a later time and delivered worldwide within the specified transit times.“
In order to operate the building as energy-efficiently as possible, DHL Express plans to use geothermal energy for heating and cooling. The lighting is provided by energy-saving LED lamps. The modern and environmentally friendly construction is expected to generate CO2 savings of more than 10%.
The airport facility will be the express operator’s latest new location in Austria following the opening of two new service centres in Styria in 2014 and in Klagenfurt in 2016.
Meanwhile, DHL Global Forwarding will start the construction of a new facility in Vienna this summer. The DHL Campus Vienna Airport in the Fischamend district will be developed on premises measuring roughly 60,000 sqm taking on a key role as a freight hub for Eastern Europe in the future. By establishing a joint site for DHL Global Forwarding and DHL Freight, synergies between the different transport modes – land, air and ocean – will be exploited even more effectively, DHL explained.
“DHL Global Forwarding and DHL Freight are combining the individual strengths of their two networks at the new site in Fischamend, which will lead to an even faster, more efficient service for our customers,” Uwe Brinks, CEO of DHL Freight, said. “The site is in proximity to Vienna airport and as such strategically well-located, providing us with low-threshold access to Eastern European markets and Germany. Through this project, we will establish an important new logistics hub together, creating a gateway into and out of the east and enabling us to further grow our volumes.”
Both divisions will each build a warehouse including office buildings on the new site, connecting them to the airport and linking them to its infrastructure. To date, DHL Global Forwarding and DHL Freight managed their business from three locations in Vienna, which are now being merged on the new campus. This results in significant efficiency gains, especially in terms of turnaround times and handling costs. The new site will have a higher number of docks and will also have cross-docks for the first time. The newly acquired property is located next to the A4 freeway, which connects the airport with Vienna city center.
“Located directly at Vienna airport, Fischamend perfectly meets our requirements for the DHL Campus, through which we intend to bundle our expertise, improve our service, and consequently further strengthen our market position in Austria,” Christoph Wahl, Managing Director for Austria at DHL Global Forwarding, said.
The new warehouses and office buildings will meet the highest security standards (TAPA A) and also comply with the most rigorous environmental protection requirements.
