Correos to invest in Barcelona postal sorting centre
The new president of Spain’s Correos, Angel Agudo San Emeterio, has begun a nationwide tour to visit postal facilities in 14 different regions of the country, meeting staff in person to exchange views on the state of the company. Yesterday he made the first stop on his tour at the main logistics office for the Catalan region, where he announced that Correos has earmarked EUR 5.25m to complete the refurbishment of the Columbus postal sorting centre in Barcelona.
The Correos president’s tour began in Catalonia because of the importance of the region to Correos in terms of both its revenue generation and the size of the workforce based in the region.
The 9,500 square metre Columbus sorting centre has been operating as the main hub for postal services in the Barcelona area since 1985, and has seen successive generations of automated mail processing equipment installed since then.
However, from 2003 onwards the bulk of mail has been sorted by the automated treatment centre at Sant Cugat del Vallès, north of Barcelona, which is currently the main logistics facility for Catalonia processing more than 3m mailpieces each day.
Efficiency
Correos now wants the facility to focus on processing all Barcelona’s mail, saying the facility has an “excellent location” right next to the main Ronda del Litoral highway.
The facility will include manual and automated sorting for standard mail, registered mail and priority mail.
Correos believes bringing together difference processes that are currently split between various facilities will bring a “substantial” imrpovement in efficiency and quality of postal services for residents and businesses in Barcelona.
The company began the first phase of refurbishing the facility in 2009, with a EUR 1.28m program to remove outdated equipment and replace electrical, heating and fire detection systems, as well as the installation of five automated sorting machines.
The next phase will see EUR 5.2m invested to adapt the facility to new activities, and a tender process is expected to begin soon, for completion by the end of 2012.
