UPS set to expand in Germany

UPS said this week it has broken ground to expand its package sorting and delivery facility in Herne, Germany, an $80 million project that is expected to be completed by the end of next year.

According to UPS, this new facility is expected to more than double the hub’s operating area and sorting capacity, with the operating area to be 25,000 square meters and be comprised of advanced technology that it said will increase its package sorting capacity to more than 36,000 pieces per hour, with the number of loading and unloading container bays to double to 130 and parking positions for delivery trucks to increase by 100 percent to 180. On the personnel side, 300 new jobs are expected to be added to this facility, which will bring the total number of staffers to 1,400.

“This expansion will create capacity to support our future business development in the region and it is also part of a series of UPS expansions across Europe,” a UPS spokesman told LM. “In 2014, we committed to investing more than two billion dollars in our European infrastructure through 2019 and this expansion is part of that commitment.” 

Perhaps the biggest benefit for customers with this news is that the sorting capacity of the facility will be more than doubled, to more than 36,000 packages per hour, he explained.

The spokesman was unable to offer up a specific number for customers that are served out of this facility, but he did say that being situated in the center of the Ruhr industrial region, Herne is an important logistical hub for many customers in that area who rely on UPS to reliably connect them to the rest of Europe and to the world.

“This ground-breaking reaffirms UPS’s commitment to businesses of all sizes in the region and our confidence in the German economy,” said Frank Sportolari, president of UPS Germany. “Herne has been a key location in our network since we opened the original building in 1986, and today’s investment will support our commitment to reliably and efficiently connect our customers to destinations across Germany, Europe and the world.”