Hermes Germany has officially opened its €57 million depot in Mainz with a capacity to sort up to 60 million shipments per year in the future creating about 200 jobs in the region, as part of the company’s €300 million investment to modernise and expand its German network.
"E-commerce in Germany is booming. Forecasts predict that parcel volumes in Germany will double to six billion shipments in Germany alone by 2025. Growth of this scale leads to effects that we need to address as a company. For this reason, we are investing over €300 million in the construction of nine sorting centres by 2019 and expanding existing logistics centres. This means that in the future we will be present in every part of Germany with extremely efficient sorting and distribution centres,” Dirk Rahn, Managing Director Operations at Hermes Germany, said.
“Today we are opening the second site of this comprehensive infrastructure project – after a construction period of only ten months. We can proudly say that we are the only logistics operator in Germany to expand our infrastructure so extensively in such a short time, by the end of 2019. We are very pleased to start operations in the Rhine-Main area, which makes us well equipped for the upcoming Christmas business in the south-west of the country."
With its convenient location in the immediate proximity of the A60 and A63 motorways, the new distribution centre in the Mainz South business park is ideally suited for this purpose. At the same time, it already ensures efficient parcels handling and optimally serves central and southern Germany, together with the new logistics centre in Bad Rappenau near Heilbronn, opened in May this year.
The logistics centre in Mainz with a total area of 10,000 sqm and 116 gates for loading and unloading trucks and small vehicles is equipped with innovative conveyor and sorting technology: a belt tray sorter from Beumer sorts up to 15,000 shipments an hour at a speed of up to 2.5 m/s. Other technical features include a large piece sorter and state-of-the-art IT systems which, for example, control real-time yard management and guarantee a smooth flow.
In addition, the calibrated weight and volume measurement of all shipments supports the exact calculation of transport capacities and the eco-friendly capacity utilisation of the Hermes fleet. The speed of the system in combination with the size of the logistics centre offer ideal conditions to offer customers and end-users optimal cut-off times and short delivery times, the company said.
The new Mainz depot was built by Hamburg-based ECE which already constructed several buildings for Hermes, including its central hub in Friedewald (Hessen) as well as its northern hub in Hanover.
“We are very proud that with our decades of experience in the field of logistics real estate and thanks to the very good and close cooperation with Hermes, we have successfully completed a logistics centre in such a short construction period of almost ten months. After Bad Rappenau, we are now delivering the second of the nine logistics centers which we are building for Hermes Germany by 2019, " Andreas Mattner, ECE Managing Director for Office, Traffic, Industries division, said.
Mainz mayor Michael Ebling highlighted the role of the logistics centre as an important economic factor for the Rhein-Main area and the city of Mainz.
“On the one hand, almost 200 jobs are created. On the other hand, we consider Hermes a very valuable strategic partner, especially when it comes to climate change, sustainability and inner city logistics. We are looking forward to the partnership, which will surely be deepened in the coming months and years – because together we can and will address the relevant topics of the future 'urban logistics' and 'alternative delivery concepts'."
