DPD’s 50 million euro parcel hub in Hamm to begin processing next week
This week DPD celebrated the completion of its largest parcel sorting centre in Germany located in Hamm, North Rhine-Westphalia.
From 7 September around 80,000 parcels per day will be handled on an area of 122,000 square metres
This volume will be gradually increased to 200,000 parcels. Initially, more than 350 workers will be employed in Hamm, rising to over 800 when the final expansion is completed.
Speaking on the occasion of the opening, DPD CEO Boris Winkelmann stated: “We’re very proud of our new parcel sorting centre in Hamm, which is an important building block in the management of our future volume growth. For our Germany-wide network the facility sets new standards in terms of performance and flexibility. In addition, our new depot is also characterised by highly sustainable construction and technological features”.
Karl-Uwe Bütof, Director of the “Innovation and Markets” section of North Rhine-Westphalia’s Ministry of Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitalisation and Energy commented: “E-commerce is booming. In North Rhine-Westphalia, too, people are increasingly shopping on the Internet. And this requires the appropriate infrastructure…It is therefore encouraging not only that we are in a position to offer large logistics areas, but also that companies like DPD are investing in our federal state and thus strengthening our status as a business and logistics location.”
Thomas Hunsteger-Petermann, Mayor of the city of Hamm, adds: “I am pleased that we have been able to persuade a major company with international operations to locate in Hamm. As a city this will enable us to expand our economic profile and at the same time create new jobs. At the end of the day local people will also benefit from this development.”
The superlative facility was completed after a construction period of just under one and a half years. LIST Bau, DPD’s long-standing partner, was responsible for the construction work. Buildings with a total area of 17,300 square metres were erected on the 122,000 square metre site. The new parcel sorting centre in Hamm will replace the previous regional parcel depot in Unna-Königsborn. In view of DPD’s strong growth rates the capacities there were no longer anywhere near sufficient. However, DPD is not completely withdrawing from Unna: the trans-regional distribution centre in the Unna industrial park will remain. From 7 September 2019 the Hamm location will not only serve shippers and consignees in the region, but will also be an important DPD trans-regional hub.
The core of the new depot is a high-performance sorting installation. In its final stage it will be able to process up to 30,000 parcels per hour fully automatically. Even during the start-up phase as many as 17,500 parcels per hour can be sorted. The sorting installation was supplied by BUDDE Fördertechnik, a long-standing partner to DPD. The conveyor system, which was installed in just 10 months, has a total length of more than 7.5 kilometres. DPD attaches great importance to low-consumption and low-noise motors and drives.
There is also a clear focus on energy efficiency in other areas of the facility. Lighting energy, for example, is reduced to a minimum by installing strip lighting and LED technology. Heating is provided by a gas heat pump in conjunction with an innovative Zortström storage system for optimum, sustainable and economical heating and cooling of buildings. DPD’s environmental and energy management system is certified in accordance with DIN 14001 and DIN 50001, and DPD Germany has also committed itself to transporting all parcels in completely carbon-neutral shipping.
