DHL Supply Chain today unveiled plans to spend €100 million expanding its network in India witheight new warehouses and more vehicles to meet growing demand.
The eight Multi-Client Sites (MCS) will add a further 5 million square feet of warehousingspace, and will be located at prime cities such as Mumbai, Gurgaon, Delhi (NCR), Bengaluru, Nagpur,Chennai, Kolkata and Ahmedabad. The facilities have been designed to enhance speed-to-market, withoperational processes being optimised to improve efficiency and reduce costs.
Built to DHL global standards, the MCS facilities are designed with best-in-class operationalprocesses which include loading docks and dock levellers, RFID technology for barcode scanning andfully secured warehouses equipped with CCTV, electronic access controls, intruder alarms andtraffic management systems. All the buildings will use “green technology” such as LED lighting andwind-assisted ventilation to reduce their CO2 footprint.
“In 2010 the Indian logistics market was at $82 billion, with a projected growth of 9 percent in 2011. With government investments in infrastructure on the rise coupled with streamliningof regulatory policies, we are enthusiastic about the fast paced growth in the logistics market,”said Paul Graham, Chief Executive Officer – Asia Pacific, DHL Supply Chain. “DHL is stronglycommitted to investing in markets of growing importance. Looking to 2015 and beyond, India, Chinaand other emerging markets are expected to be the key drivers of growth. With these new warehousesand our continued investment in our people, we are taking another step in the right direction topursue DHL’s global strategy and support Indian business development,” he added.
Oscar de Bok, Chief Executive Officer – South and South East Asia, DHL Supply Chain,commented: “By setting up world class infrastructure and improving our existing network offacilities in India, we will be in a strong position to meet the increasing logistics andwarehousing needs of corporates in India, thus enabling us to effectively tap into this expandingmarket.”
The transportation sector is also growing fast in India, DHL pointed out. Due to increasedoutsourcing, the 3PL market in India is growing at a faster pace than GDP, and will account for 13per cent of the total logistics market in 2015, from 6 per cent in 2008, with transportationaccounting for as much as 72 per cent of this sector.
In response, DHL Supply Chain has recently opened 18 branches which provide dedicated fulltruck load services (FTL) across the country. This service, which was previously offered only towarehousing customers, is now available for other customers as well and has received a tremendousresponse with a large number of new customers being added recently, DHL claimed.
The transport branch network covers all the major business cities in the country and isequipped with a transport management system and specialised staff who bring DHL’s higher standardsof reliability to a largely fragmented FTL market, the company added.
The global market leader in contract logistics said that it has also introduced new peopleskills training centres in India to build up the talent of its employees, who are expected to reach10,000 by 2015.
