The Hermes Fulfilment Group is expanding its network to include a location for the logistics processing of OTTO and Mytoys goods - their goods are to be processed faster and more efficiently in future and next-day delivery is to be promoted. Construction work on a new distribution center in Ilowa, Poland, officially began yesterday with a symbolic laying of the foundation stone. It will be tailored to the logistical handling of small-volume products such as clothing and toys. The new building in Ilowa is part of an investment programme in the mid three-digit million euro range with which the Otto Group intends to reorganize its logistics at the retail companies OTTO and Mytoys and significantly improve the customer experience. The expansion in Gernsheim, Hesse, is also part of this program. Both locations will be operated by the Hermes Fulfilment Group.
The logistics center in Ilowa in western Poland, around 30 kilometers from the border with Germany, is being built on a 260,153 square meter site. The planned building complex will comprise nine halls with a total area of 118,267 square meters. Hermes Fulfilment and its 1,900 employees will store, pick and ship goods from OTTO and Mytoys in the new building. End customers in Germany will be supplied from Ilowa. The distribution center is scheduled to start operations at the end of 2023.
Parallel to the new building in Ilowa, the current central Mytoys logistics location in Gernsheim, Hesse, 20 kilometers south of Darmstadt, will be expanded and redesigned during ongoing operations. The planned go-live date there is the first quarter of 2024. The background to both construction projects is volume growth on the one hand and customer demand for faster delivery on the other. The site currently processes around 25 million items a year with 1,000 employees. Following the expansion, capacity will increase to 70 million items per year. Both locations, Ilowa and Gernsheim, will be networked and will handle both OTTO and Mytoys goods in equal measure. In future, the majority of consignments will be reliably delivered the day after they are ordered. The optimized processes within the logistics centers will also contribute to this. "Increased automation of intralogistics will speed up throughput times. This will not only make us faster, but also more efficient - for the benefit of customers, whose shopping experience will be noticeably improved by the shorter parcel delivery time," says Julia Hanebuth, head of the overall project at Hermes Fulfilment. "Speed and service are the decisive competitive factors in e-commerce. With an improved logistics service, we will support the growth of OTTO and Mytoys in the long term."
