Left: Dwain McDonald, CEO for DPD, and Philippe Wahl, chairman and CEO of La Poste
Parcel delivery provider DPD has officially opened its £100m (US$152m) state-of-the-art sortation facility in Hinckley, Leicestershire. The depot is capable of sorting 720,000 parcels each day and will create 1,000 new full-time jobs in the region.
The hub was opened at a special ceremony in front of 400 guests including Philippe Wahl, chairman and CEO of La Poste, HM Lord-Lieutenant of Leicestershire, Lady Gretton, Leicester-born footballer and television presenter Gary Lineker, and representatives from some of the largest retail names in the UK.
The new superhub was delivered on time and on budget, and will be fully operational ahead of this year’s Black Friday and Christmas peak period. The building itself is approximately 1,542ft long and 131ft wide with 264 loading dock doors. It also contains a 9,843ft long automated sorter, designed by conveyer specialists Beumer Group.
Dwain McDonald, CEO for DPD, said, “Our new Hinckley superhub is an absolutely stunning building and the whole project is a credit to everyone involved. I’m incredibly proud of my team and what we have achieved, so it was real honor to be able to invite Her Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Leicestershire, Gary Lineker and our retail customers to see the facility for themselves.
“The superhub is way beyond anything else in the UK and gives us significant scope to expand in the next few years. We’ve been consistently investing in our network and growing our capacity for some time now to ensure we stay well ahead of the increasing demand for DPD’s services. We’ve also opened around 20 new depots in the UK in the last two years, half of them being brand new purpose-built developments. But Hinckley is the clearest signal yet of our intent.
“Our retail customers already know the quality of our service compared to the rest of the next-day delivery market, today they also saw the scale of our ambition and the level of investment we are making on their behalf.”
To see a video by DPD dedicated to the new Hinckley depot click here.
September 29, 2015