DHL builds logistics facility to help Primark expand in Germany

DHL Supply Chain has started construction on a new 40,000 square metre logistics facility in Germany, after being selected to help budget fashion retailer Primark expand its business across Northern Europe. The new purpose-built facility is being developed in Mönchengladbach, close to the Dutch border, at a site with good links to the autobahn network. About 250 jobs are to be created at the site.

It will include a four-storey warehouse and two-storey office building, with DHL intending to make use of environmental and efficient technologies.

The company said the facility will dispatch fashion products in cartons, but will also feature a hanging garment racking and rail transport system.

Expected to be operating mid-2012, the new facility will help DHL to provide distribution for Irish-owned Primark in Germany and neighbouring countries.

Martin Seidenberg, chief executive officer for the Central European region at DHL Supply Chain, said the new facility was the “natural next step” for his company’s relationship with Primark, having supported the company’s activities in the UK and Iberian Peninsula.

“With the new strategically located facility, we are able to provide Primark with the infrastructure and service it needs to expand its successful business,” he said.

Primark, a company founded in Dublin in 1969 as Penneys, currently has 225 stores in Western Europe, opening its first branch in Continental Europe in the Netherlands in late 2008. Having entered the German market in 2009, the company is now aiming to expand extensively in the country in the next few years.

Martin White, Primark’s supply chain director, said: “We chose DHL as our logistics partner for a number of reasons – its comprehensive presence in Europe, the successful delivery of similar projects and its openness to our needs and requirements.”