UK Mail invests £21m in regional network
UK Mail is to invest more than £21m in three new sites within its UK regional network. In a statement issued today (21 August), the company said that the investment will support its growth.
Following its acquisition by Deutsche Post DHL Group in December, the company is now handling over 20% more parcel volumes which it attributes to “increasing levels of imported and domestic traffic from the B2C retail sector”.
A new facility in Enfield, North London, will open in October 2017 following investment of £10m (€11.7m). The new site is 70,000 square ft, three times the size of the existing operation in the area, and will process up to 14,000 parcels a day.
In November, UK Mail will open a new £11.8m depot in Milton Keynes. Parcel handling operations from the existing Milton Keynes site will be moved over to the new building, which will also incorporate a new, larger customer call centre. The new facility is three times the size of the existing depot at over 102,000 square ft and will process up to 20,000 parcels a day.
The company will also be open a new Aberdeen site in November, which will be double the size of the existing facility serving that area.
Peter Fuller, UK Mail’s Chief Executive Officer, commented: “This investment in key sites is part of our strategic growth plan for the business. We’ve recently been awarded some major new contracts and we have ambitious targets to continue on this trajectory. To be successful we need to invest in the most effective infrastructure and equipment for our people to increase parcel handling capacity.”
The investment in these sites follows the recent extension of the company’s national hub in Ryton. The extension includes installation of a partly automated parcel sorting system which will increase the hub’s handling capacity to over 24,000 parcels an hour.
