The company has purchased a 140,000 square metre plot of land at Obertshausen, near the A3 highway, where it intends to develop a project involving an eight-figure (Euro) investment.

Once built, the parcel centre will be capable of processing 50,000 items an hour – the first facility in the nation to do so, Deutsche Post said.

Uwe Brinks, the chief production officer at Deutsche Post DHL, said the investment was an “important milestone” in the modernisation of the company’s parcel network.

“The result will be one of the largest and most modern parcel centres in Europe,” he said. “We have already submitted the building application to the Obertshausen municipality and want to begin construction this year.”

Deutsche Post said its new parcel centre should be up and running in the spring of 2014, complete with a building offering 40,000 square metres of interior space equipped with “the most modern technology”. Along with the sorting centre, a delivery base will also be established to help shorten parcel transit times.

The Obertshausen site offers a central location in Germany, close to the A3 highway

The new Obertshausen site will see the creation of 600 new jobs in parcel sorting and delivery, the company said.

The site for the new facility has been developed by property firm Alpha Industrial.

Deutsche Post is currently in the process of investing EUR 750m in its German parcel network, to modernise facilities and expand capacity. The company says its efforts have already seen a 15% increase in network capacities so far.

Up to 2015, the company is investing in new processing machines and new IT systems to update production processes and “substantially” increase network performance.

Source: Post&Parcel/Deutsche Post DHL

Tags: Deutsche Post DHL, Germany, sorting