trans-o-flex provides logistics for major German retailer’s move online
Austrian Post’s German parcel business trans-o-flex has secured a deal to operate central distribution for one of the country’s largest retailers, as it launches its new e-commerce website this summer. dm-drogerie markt is a retail chain selling household goods, health food, healthcare products and cosmetics through nearly 3,000 locations in Germany, Austria, and 10 other nations in Eastern Europe.
The retailer has annual revenues of around EUR 7.7bn.
Trans-o-flex said it has set up a central distribution centre at its existing facility in Alzenau, northern Bavaria, which has now been in place since January. Testing of order and processing systems for the deal is taking place in February and March.
The company said 5,000 square metres of space has been made available for dm, with 14,000 different products in place ready to be picked and packed.
In the first phase, the distribution facility will be capable of processing up to 5,000 orders per day.
Peter Astor, the managing director of trans-o-flex Logistics Services, said: “This partnership with dm represents one of the largest contracts that we have ever won. As a result, we have already ensured that increasing the capacity at this location will be clearly possible.”
trans-o-flex said it won the dm contract through an international tender programme, as part of a partnership with Austria-based Advanced Commerce Labs (ACL), a firm specialising in setting up online retail operations, which commissioned trans-o-flex to provide logistics for the deal.
Astor said his company worked on the tender bid with ACL, with the contract won after representatives from dm visited the company’s Alzenau location in November.
“The dm officials could see for themselves that we were ready to start without any building work, or investments, because the warehouse and shelving racks were already in operation, though not at full capacity.”
Plans are to deliver dm’s online orders via existing dm distribution centres in Germany, with direct orders to online consumers taking place in partnership with a B2C parcel specialist.
