An Post has opened its new 50,000 sq m Dublin Parcel Hub (DPH), a €15m investment in automated parcel processing. According to the company, the new hub is a gateway for incoming and outgoing national and international parcels and is part of a transformational process of its e-Commerce logistics.
The company hopes that the new logistics facility will increase its parcel processing capacity and become a vital gateway to international trade for Irish brands like Eason, Brown Thomas, Carrolls Irish Gifts, Blarney Woollen Mills, Arnotts and Carraig Donn.
According to An Post, the hub’s Beumer Technology enables 13,000 parcels to be processed every hour as about 90% of its processes are automated and the system can recognise all Irish locations. Afterwards, parcels are despatched directly from the DPH to local delivery units.
EU Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan said: “The DPH will help to connect Irish businesses and consumers to the world. By transforming its business model, An Post will be supporting Ireland and its international trade.’’
David McRedmond, CEO, An Post said: “Over 50% of Irish retail is now done online. The European Investment Bank recently approved a €40m loan to support our strategy and we will invest this to rebuild our network over the next five years to keep up with the evolving e-Commerce landscape.”
Garrett Bridgeman, Managing Director, An Post Mails & Parcels said: “In 2018, An Post processed more than 30m parcels, a 42% increase year-on-year as shoppers increasingly opted to buy goods online. We see signs of large volume increase in the future also, therefore we needed to make a step change into Parcel Automation. We believe that Ireland can become a leader in e-Commerce and that the new centre is important in this development. We have the trade agreements in place to connect 280,000 Irish businesses to 200 countries worldwide through the global postal network.”
An Post estimated that the new parcel hub handled more than 1m parcels generated by online shoppers between Black Friday and Cyber Monday through Irish and international e-tailers, and around 120,000 parcels per day. An Post expects to handle 16m parcels from the UK alone, 5m from the US, Canada and Brazil, and over 1m from Germany.
Source: An Post
