Royal Mail to build 840,000 sq ft parcel hub in East Midlands
The East Midlands is set to become home to the Royal Mail’s largest-ever parcel hub.
The 840,000 sq ft facility, at the Daventry International Rail Freight Interchange (DIRFT) will be built and in operation by 2023, according to reports in trade title Property Week.
It will have the capacity to process more than a million pieces of post a day.
Royal Mail announced the first of two fully-automated hubs – in Warrington – last year. It currently operates out of a 272,603 sq ft parcel delivery hub on DIRFT.
Simon Thompson, chief executive of Royal Mail, said: “Our business is accelerating and this state-of-the-art parcel hub in the Midlands will allow us to seize the market opportunity and continue to deliver great service for our customers at 31 million doorsteps up and down the country. I am sure our team are looking forward to the first day of operation as much as I am.”
Phil Oakley, vice president, leasing & development, Prologis UK, added: “Royal Mail’s decision to locate its largest UK parcel hub at DIRFT is great news for the local economy and the ecommerce companies located on Prologis DIRFT who rely on the company’s delivery services. Proximity to the new Royal Mail unit means companies can confidently extend order picking times and still achieve next day delivery for their customers.”
At the time it said: “The trends we are experiencing in letter and parcel volumes may slow after the pandemic but we do not expect them to reverse. There is an opportunity to benefit from the rapidly growing demand by customers for parcels and if Royal Mail can adapt its business quickly enough, we will be well positioned to meet customers’ demands for more and more items, to and from more people, delivered more frequently. But we need to move quickly.
“Currently, too many parcels are sorted by hand and we are failing to adapt our business to fundamentally lower letter volumes and are holding on to outdated working practices and a delivery structure that no longer meets customer needs.”
