Hermes inaugurates its largest European logistics center

By

Melanie Muller

Translated by
Susan Spies

Published
Aug 22, 2017

German shipping and logistics company Hermes has opened its largest logistics center in Europe, located in the the English city of Rugby. The new facility measures 270,000 square feet, which the company points out is the equivalent of 34 football fields, will employ a workforce of 100 and comes with a price tag of 34 million euros.

 “We are extremely proud to officially open our Midlands Super Hub in Rugby, the largest parcel hub of its kind in the UK,” said Carole Woodhead, CEO of Hermes UK. “The facility significantly strengthens our network and infrastructure, vastly enhances our throughput capability, and guarantees that we are in the best possible position to support the UK’s retail industry for many years to come.”

Hermes says the super-hub will be able process a record volume of up to 1.5 million packets per day, part of its effort to keep pace with the rapid growth in volume of the UK's booming e-commerce landscape. According to Euromonitor, the e-commerce market in the UK is on track to rise by 14 percent to around 72.7 billion euros. Hermes has already been enjoying double-digit growth rates for the past six years. The new hub will increase the company's parcel processing capacity by 45 percent.

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“Our current investment reaffirms our confidence in the future and success of the UK e-commerce market,” said Donald Pilz, CEO of Hermes Europe. "Despite the current Brexit discussion, the UK market continues to play a key role in the global expansion plans of many of our clients.”

The shipping company with its Europe headquarters in Germany has similar designs on its home country and is planning to invest 300 million euros in on overhaul of its logistic infrastructure for the German market. The company says it plans to create "35 state-of-the-art sites, which will be the backbone of Hermes Germany's parcel delivery in the future."

The Hamburg-based shipping and logistics company is owned by the Otto Group. For 2016, Hermes revenues rose by more than seven percent to EUR 2,640 million. Hermes currently employs 12,618 people worldwide, with a workforce of 8,500 in Germany.