Swiss Post to build three new regional parcel centres
Swiss Post will be investing 150m francs to build three new regional parcel centres in the cantons of Graubünden, Ticino and Valais by 2020. In a statement issued today (29 June), Swiss Post said that it was building the new facilities in response to the “strong growth in online retail”.
Swiss Post delivered almost 122m parcels in 2016, which was around 6% up on 2015.
The new centre for Graubünden canton will be located in Landquart, the Ticino facility in Cadenazzo, and the Valais centre in Vétroz. They will complement Swiss Post’s existing parcel centres in Daillens (VD), Härkingen (SO) and Frauenfeld (TG).
The first of the three new regional parcel centres will be developed in Cadenazzo on the site of the existing distribution base. The facility is scheduled to come into operation at the end of 2019.
The Vétroz and the Landquart centres are planned for the end of 2020.
“The current parcel services at the distribution centers located in Bex, Brig and Sion will be brought together under one roof in the new regional parcel center in Vétroz, while the new regional parcel center in the Landquart area will combine the current facilities in Buchs and Landquart,” said Swiss Post. “These locations will be designed to accommodate sorting capacity of 8,000 parcels an hour. All staff will continue to be employed at the new locations, although some of them may have to travel further to work as a result.”
Swiss Post said that the new centres were part of the company’s ongoing investment plans to meet customers’ growing demand for parcel service.
The company commented: “Between 2014 and 2016, Swiss Post invested approximately 60m francs in its three major parcel centres in Daillens, Härkingen and Frauenfeld. Thanks to this expansion, sorting capacity was increased by some 25%. According to Swiss Post’s calculations, this will only be sufficient to manage increasing volumes until 2020. Swiss Post predicts that the strong growth in online retail will continue, and, to be able to cover the expected demand completely beyond 2020, it is now laying the foundations for the future in parcel processing with the construction of the new regional parcel centres.”
