DPD UK completes construction on £100m parcel hub
Parcel carrier DPD UK has completed construction on its new £100m hub at Hinckley in Leicestershire. The company said the largest hub of its kind in Europe was completed ahead of schedule, and with work now getting underway fitting out the interior, the facility should be fully operational by September 2015.
Once fully up and running, it is expected to increase DPD’s parcel handling capacity by more than 65% — creating 1,000 permanent new jobs in the process.
The 18,800 square metre facility was developed by property developer Goodman on a 32-acre site at the developer’s Hinckley Commercial Park location, with work beginning in July 2013.
The hub includes 6,790 square metres of mezzanine space split over two levels, with 624 sq m of office space.
DPD said conveyor specialists Beumer are now on site installing automated sorting systems that will run the 470-metre length of the building.
“Significant”
The new DPD parcel hub at Hinkley Commercial Park, Leicestershire, is expected to be fully operational in September 2015
Dwain McDonald, DPD UK’s CEO, said, “This is a very significant day for us. The building looks absolutely stunning and for it to be completed ahead of schedule is a credit to everyone involved. Hinckley gives us significant scope to expand our capacity and allows us to stay one step ahead of the growth in the online parcel market and our competitors.
“Our current level of investment is unprecedented in the industry and Hinckley is just part of the expansion that has taken place in recent times. We’ve also opened 18 new depots around the country in the last two years, nine of them being purpose-built developments. As a result, we have been creating around 1,000 new jobs a year and 2015 will see us continue with that level of growth,” added the DPD UK chief.
The location for the new hub in Leicestershire, central England, gives DPD good access to the rest of the country. Hinckley Commercial Park lies between Coventry and Leicester, close to Junction 1 of the M69 motorway, which links up the M1 and M6 motorways.
DPD said recruitment for the hub will begin in the New Year, with opportunities for deck hands, parcel loaders and HGV mechanics as well as positions available in management, vehicle maintenance, security, admin and IT.
The company owned by La Poste’s international express-parcels business GeoPost has been growing rapidly thanks to the boom in UK e-commerce, and its investment in technology that allows parcels to be tracked by consumers in real time, with a one-hour delivery window estimated in advance.
DPD employs more than 7,000 people in the UK in total at more than 50 locations, with more than 3,000 vehicles delivering 1.6m parcels each week.
