Dive Brief:
- DHL eCommerce relocated its Raleigh, North Carolina, distribution center to Concord, North Carolina, in a bid to increase capacity, according to a Sept. 5 press release.
- The Concord facility, which is 162,836 square feet, will handle 30% more parcels and packages from online merchants. The former facility was 120,000 square feet, a DHL eCommerce spokesperson told Supply Chain Dive in an email.
- The new center is a 30-minute drive to the Charlotte Douglas International Airport and strengthens the company's capabilities in the Southeast region just before peak holiday shipping season in a few months, Lee Spratt, CEO of DHL eCommerce in the Americas, said in the release.
Dive Insight:
DHL eCommerce is leveraging a single-level loop sorter in the new Concord, North Carolina distribution center.
The single-level loop sorter includes “scanners and cameras that can process 24,000 packages per hour, which is 30% more throughput than DHL’s previous location,” according to the release. The loop sorter also has a 97% to over 99% accuracy rate.
The facility will employ about 150 people to process volume from online merchants headed to consumers.
Loop sorters have been key in DHL eCommerce's automation push for quite a while. The company's Irving, Texas, location, which relocated from Grand Prairie earlier this year, features a loop sorter that doubled the amount of packages it processed at its former facility. Similarly, in August 2023, the logistics provider equipped its Chicago facility with a Honeywell loop sorter with the ability to process 40,000 parcels and packages per hour.
Recently, parent company DHL Group introduced a strategy for sustainable growth for second half of the decade with a goal of 50% revenue growth by 2030 compared to 2023, according to a Sept. 23 press release. The plan includes e-commerce and digitalization among its priorities.
“DHL Group will enhance its footprint in the e-commerce market by using the combined strength of its divisions for integrated offerings, such as combined fulfillment and last-mile delivery,” according to the release.
