DPD has opened its £100m new hub in Hinckley, Leicestershire, at a ceremony which included among its guests Gary Lineker, HM Lord-Lieutenant of Leicestershire, Jennifer, Lady Gretton JP, and Philippe Wahl, Chairman and CEO of La Poste, who performed the official opening.
At 470 metres long, 40 metres wide, and with 264 loading dock doors, the hub is capable of sorting 720,000 parcels per night, and will create 1,000 new full-time jobs.
Dwain McDonald and Lady Gretton
The hub took a little over two years to build, is the largest sorting centre of its kind in Europe, and covers a 33-acre site, which is the equivalent of 19 football pitches, if that’s your preferred unit of measurement. Other key stats include:
- 250,000 tonnes of earth removed
- 75,000 tonnes of concrete laid
- 4,500 tonnes of steelwork in the construction of the hub
- 3,000 metres of sorter
Dwain McDonald, DPD’s CEO, said: “Our new Hinckley superhub is an absolutely stunning building and the whole project is a credit to everyone involved. I’m incredibly proud of my team and what we have achieved, so it was real honour to be able to invite Her Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Leicestershire, Gary Lineker and our retail customers to see the facility for themselves.”
Dwain McDonald and Philippe Wahl
“The superhub is way beyond anything else in the UK and gives us significant scope to expand in the next few years. We’ve been consistently investing in our network and growing our capacity for some time now to ensure we stay well ahead of the increasing demand for DPD’s services. We’ve also opened around 20 new depots in the UK in the last two years, half of them being brand new purpose-built developments. But Hinckley is the clearest signal yet of our intent.”
DPD have produced a short video accompanying the opening of the hub.
See also:
Europe’s largest parcel hub takes shape
