Parcel delivery company Hermes UK has announced the opening of a new distribution depot in Castleford, West Yorkshire. The opening of the 111,000ft2 depot will create around 133 new jobs for the area.
The parcel and postal industry continues to ride out a large increase in demand for deliveries brought about by consumers ordering more items than ever for delivery to their homes. As a result, Hermes says that the opening of the new depot precedes further anticipated high parcel traffic due around Black Friday and the Christmas online shopping peak before the end of the year.
The new facility will be able to handle over 84,000 parcels every day, Hermes says, with the ability to operate 24 hours a day in the most extreme periods of busy parcel traffic handling. The Castleford site forms part of the ongoing investment program by Hermes UK to expand its capacity and meet the huge demand created by people shopping at home during lockdown, leading to collective continuing growth in the sector.
The company estimates that it will see record parcel volumes later this year, up to 3.5 million each day across its network, almost double that of last year.