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Zalando has announced it is to build a new £180m fulfillment center in an existing business park near Rotterdam to help cater for its western European customers.
The expansion of its logistics network forms part of Zalando’s 2023/24 growth target and aims to expands its customer proposition for customers in France, Spain and the UK.
The site will have a floor area of 140,000 square metres and a total storage capacity of 16 million items. The first parcels are set to be delivered from Bleiswijk in the summer of 2021. About 1,500 jobs will be created in the mid-term.
The development is being undertaken by a joint venture of Somerset Capital Partners and USAA Realco-Europe. Once the fulfillment center has been fully integrated, Zalando said it aims to reduce delivery lead times in Benelux markets.
Jan Bartels, SVP customer fulfillment, said: “A strong logistics network is the foundation for realising our growth strategy and the vision of becoming the starting point for fashion. By constructing a new state-of-the-art fulfillment center in Bleiswijk, we are confident that this is an important step forward in building the infrastructure to achieve €20bn in gross merchandise volume by 2023/2024.”
Kenneth Melchior, director northern Europe, added: “The Benelux markets play an integral role in the growth ambition of Zalando. Over the next five years we aim to more than double revenues in this region, thereby strengthening our position as market leader.
“The opening of our fulfillment center in Bleiswijk is crucial in enabling this growth. We look forward to enhancing our customer proposition by reducing delivery lead times in the Benelux area and introducing services like next and same-day delivery once Bleiswijk is fully operational.”
Back in May Zalando revealed it had “successfully expanded its customer reach” as it saw revenues and profits jump for the first quarter of 2019. It revealed that revenues increased by 15.2% to £1.2bn and its adjusted EBITDA also increased from £0.3m to £5.5m. Zalando attributed the rise to its active customers increasing by 14.1% to 27.2 million and site visits by 29.5% to 924 million.
