Zalando opens its own logistics center

By

Matthieu Guinebault

Published
Dec 16, 2012

It’s a first for the German footwear and clothing online retailer. Zalando is bringing its logistics activities in-house with a warehouse that it just inaugurated with great fanfare in Erfurt, a city located between Berlin and Frankfurt.

It took ten months of construction to create the approximately 120,000 square meter warehouse that will eventually employ one thousand workers. “The largest warehouse in Europe dedicated to fashion and footwear” will soon be augmented by another 75,000-square-meter logistics hub, expected to open in early 2013 in Mönchengladbach, east of Düsseldorf.

“With our logistics sites in Brandenburg and soon in Mönchengladbach, this new warehouse is being integrated into an efficient logistics network with which we can serve our customers even more quickly and efficiently in 14 European countries,” said David Schroeder, head of MyBrands Zalando eLogistics. “Having our own logistics with processes and a custom-built inventory management system has become an essential key factor for the success of our company.”

In October, Zalando raised 40.7 million from three investors. The funds were primarily used for the development of the German website’s first two self-operated logistics centers. The new facilities should create a network that can handle business coming from Zalando’s expansion into Belgium, Spain, Finland and Denmark, and more recently into Poland and Norway.

For fiscal year 2012, Zalando revenues are expected to total 1.3 billion euros compared to 510 million in 2011. The website is now online in some 14 countries in Europe, offering 100,000 products and 1,300 brands.