Deutsche Post DHL opens 430,000 sq ft parcel centre in North Rhine Westphalia

Former site of Opel car plant has a sorting capacity of up to 50,000 shipments per hour

Former site of Opel car plant has a sorting capacity of up to 50,000 shipments per hour [Credit: DHL]

Deutsche Post DHL Group has opened a major parcel centre situated in Bochum, a city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

The facility has a sorting capacity of up to 50,000 shipments per hour and alongside the Obertshausen parcel centre near Frankfurt am Main, which opened in 2016, is the largest DHL parcel centre in Germany.

DHL says that it expects the facility to reach full capacity somewhere in 2020, boosting capacity from the current level of 20,000 shipments sorted per hour. DHL expects to employ around 600 people in the centre.

Deutsche Post DHL has invested a three-digit million sum in the location.

In 2016, Deutsche Post DHL Group acquired approximately 140,000 square meters of space at the former Opel site in Bochum-Laer. Construction of the parcel centre began in fall 2017 and was completed on schedule within two years. The new parcel centre building covers an area of 40,000 square meters. The parcel centre is supplied with electricity and heat by its own block-type thermal power station. A roof-mounted photovoltaic system is also planned.

The opening takes DHL Group’s network of parcel centres in Germany to 36, in which a total of around 1.2 million items can be sorted during every hour of operation. Deutsche Post DHL Group says that it ships an average of around five million parcel items for its customers nationwide every working day, rising to as many as 11 million parcels per day before Christmas.

 “With its high level of sorting performance and use of innovative technology, the Bochum parcel centre is making a major contribution to Deutsche Post DHL’s German parcel network,” says Tobias Meyer, Corporate Board Member for Post & Paket Deutschland, Deutsche Post DHL Group. “This will enable us to fulfill our service promise to our customers in the region even more reliably as shipment volumes continue to rise. At the same time, we are delighted to be able to create jobs subject to social security contributions and covered by collective agreements at a logistically advantageous location in the Ruhr region and thereby play our part in the development of the region.” Meyer points out that DHL business customers in the region will also benefit from the immediate proximity to the new parcel centre as their shipments can be picked up at later times and still be delivered the following day throughout Germany.

“The fact that DHL is opening one of Europe’s most efficient parcel centres in Bochum is further proof of the attractiveness of the Ruhr region and strengthens North Rhine-Westphalia as a leading logistics location,” says Armin Laschet, Minister-President of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.

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