DPD Germany has started the construction of its new high-capacity parcel distribution centre in Hamm, North-Rhine Westphalia (near Dortmund), with an investment of around €50 million.
The facility, which is due to become operational in autumn 2019, is located on a site covering 122,000 sqm. The yard area covers 58,000 sqm and the buildings – 17,300 sqm. It is considered to be one of DPD’s sorting centres with the highest capacity nationwide. Over 350 workers will be employed on site from the very start, with the number rising to 800 workers when the final expansion stage is completed. The sorting capacity will gradually rise from an initial 80,000 to more than 200,000 parcels per day.
The new parcel sorting centre in Hamm will replace the existing regional parcel depot in Unna-Königsborn, the capacity of which is entirely exhausted due to the strong parcel volume growth in the region. However, the national DPD distribution centre located at the Unna business park will continue its operations. The new Hamm location will not only serve customers and consignees in the region but will also become a major national hub for DPD.
The core of the new depot in Hamm will be its high-performance sorting system, which, in the final expansion stage, will have the capacity to process up to 30,000 parcels an hour in a fully automatic way. Even in the initial phase, the sorting capacity will already be 17,500 parcels an hour.
Thomas Ohnhaus, Chief Operating Officer (COO) at DPD Germany, said: "The new parcel sorting centre here in Hamm is our biggest construction project in recent years. Such significant investment on our part is necessary in order to cope with the expected growth in parcel volumes in the future. From next year onwards, this ultra-modern location in Hamm will play a central role in our network.”
In the specifications for the installation, DPD attached great value to drive technology which is low in energy consumption and noise, and to high energy efficiency in general. For example, the use of strip lighting and LED technology reduces the energy requirements for lighting to a minimum. A gas-heat pump is used for heating, combined with an innovative Zortström energy storage system for efficient, sustainable and economic heating and cooling of the buildings. DPD's environmental and energy management system is certified in accordance with DIN 14001 and DIN 50001 standards. DPD Germany is also committed to carbon-neutral parcel shipping operations.
"E-commerce is flourishing, and parcel services will therefore become more and more important for our business infrastructure”, Christoph Dammermann, Secretary of State, North-Rhine Westphalia's Ministry for the Economy, Innovation, Digitalisation and Energy, commented. "I am therefore delighted that here in North-Rhine Westphalia we can offer companies like DPD favourable investment opportunities, which at the same time increase our own status as a major business and logistics centre."
