DHL plans to invest €50 million in its supply chain business in Thailand with new facilities andresources to cash in on the South-East Asian country’s economic development, especially in the
automotive and retail sectors.DHL Supply Chain, already market leader in the country, will build new facilities, expand itsfleet of trucks, invest in new technology, intensify its training and talent development programmesand create an additional 2,000 jobs over the next two and a half years.
Paul Graham, DHL Supply Chain CEO for Asia Pacific, explained: “Thailand is one of thefastest-growing markets for our business with our footprint growing 30% in the last year. We wantto be ready to grow with our customers as they expand within the market.”
Oscar De Bok, the division’s CEO for South and South East Asia, added: “To achieve this, we arelaunching several projects in 2013, including an automotive campus on the eastern seaboard toleverage our automotive operations, a new warehouse facility at Bangna to support our retailsector, an expansion of our truck fleet and a new transport management system to create greaterefficiencies in our distribution capabilities. We will also create 2,000 new positions on top ofour existing headcount of 9,500 to support these enhancements to our in-country network.”
In the automotive sector, DHL Supply Chain already operates facilities in Rayong, south-east ofBangkok, but did not say where its second automotive campus would be located on the easternseaboard. Kevin Burrell, DHL Supply Chain’s recently-appointed managing director for Thailand,said: “Thailand is now the world’s top tenth in terms of auto production as a result of a fullrecovery of the industry from last year’s floods and the production increases by both assemblersand parts-makers.”
In the retail, fashion, and consumer sectors DHL Supply Chain will launch a new facility nextyear at Bangna, on the edge of Bangkok, to consolidate its key strategic accounts and offer a newoperating environment. Burrell continued: “We are expecting healthy retail growth, and the newfacility will help us innovate and develop better and more efficient supply chain processes. Weconstantly invest in new processes or technologies to help customers run their businesses moreefficiently in an ever increasing competitive environment.”
De Bok said that DHL Supply Chain’s retail operations in Thailand “boast world-class automationand warehouse management systems, making them amongst the most productive and efficient facilitiesin our Asia Pacific business”.
The company will also expand its fleet of over 1,000 vehicles and expand sub-contractorpartnerships, invest more in driver training and step up its overall staff training programmes.
In a new move, DHL Supply Chain also plans to set up ‘crisis management supply chain services’,using its experience from the dramatic floods in Thailand and the devastating earthquakes in Japanand New Zealand.
