The heartbeat of logistics is the motto of the Hermes Fulfilment GmbH dispatch center in Haldensleben (Saxony-Anhalt). This heart has been beating in the huge logistics center near Magdeburg for 30 years now. Today, guests from politics, business and society celebrated the milestone birthday in style and also looked to the future: The modern site focuses on digitalization, the use of artificial intelligence and robotics.
The site has been the hub for Otto Group retail companies since 1994. For almost five years, the shipping center in the Börde district has specialized in the logistics handling of the fashion range of the Bonprix fashion brand. This primarily includes clothing and shoes. Using state-of-the-art technology, robotics and AI, Hermes Fulfilment handles the storage of goods, packs parcels and bags with the items ordered online, takes care of shipping to more than 20 European countries and stores the items that are returned if they are not suitable. The dispatch center is the central hub of Bonprix's logistics. The processes are continuously optimized, further adapted to the needs of the customer Bonprix and the productivity of the dispatch center is increased even further.
"Haldensleben not only stands for tradition, but above all for operational excellence, innovation and the future. The heartbeat of e-commerce is logistics. And there is no doubt that a strong heart beats here in Haldensleben," says Prof. Dr. Michael Otto. When the site was founded, he was Chairman of the Executive Board of the retail and services group; today he heads the Supervisory Board of the Otto Group. Among the guests at the opening ceremony in Haldensleben was the then German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.
When the mail order center opened in September 1994, orders were still mainly placed by letter, fax or telephone from the catalog. Today, all it takes is a tap on a smartphone and the desired item lands in the virtual shopping cart. The dispatch center has constantly evolved in line with technical progress - including in terms of personnel: Hermes Fulfilment currently employs around 4,000 people in Haldensleben. This makes the company the town's largest employer and one of the ten largest employers in the whole of Saxony-Anhalt. "The Haldensleben distribution center is a success story for the entire state. Hermes Fulfilment is one of the most important companies in Saxony-Anhalt and is of great structural importance," said Minister President Dr. Reiner Haseloff in his speech on the occasion of the anniversary. Today, the company is one of the largest distribution centers in Europe.
"Even after 30 years, Haldensleben is still the heart of Otto Group Logistics. Continuously modernized, the site is one of the most productive in the entire network," emphasized Kay Schiebur, Otto Group Executive Board Member for Services. The site has been expanded several times over the past 30 years. In 2010, for example, the facility in nearby Südhafen was added, which today mainly stores goods for the mail order company OTTO. A year later, the automated returns warehouse, the largest of its kind in the world at the time, was put into operation on the main site in Hamburger Straße. As the parent company, the Otto Group has invested almost one billion euros in the site to date, most recently in digitalization and the use of AI-controlled robots.
Since the end of 2023, for example, the robot dog "Spot" has been on the move in the dispatch center to check the line systems for leaks and changes in noise. In the incoming goods department, swap bodies and containers have been unloaded with the help of a mobile robot arm for a few days now - a first of international significance, because: "We are the first in Europe to use the Stretch," emphasizes Kevin Kufs, CEO of Hermes Fulfilment. Another robot, which places items on the conveyor belt, is currently being tested in individual shipments. Regular operations are scheduled to start at the beginning of 2025. All three initiatives are based on strategic partnerships between the Otto Group and leading US companies in the field of AI-supported robotics.
Further investments will also be made in the site in the future: The storage and retrieval machines, which weigh several tons and move back and forth in the aisles of the high-bay warehouse, storing and retrieving cartons of new goods, will be replaced in a total of nine construction phases by 2028.
