// Zalando to speed up its expansion in Western Europe with new warehouse
// Zalando will invest €200m (£180m) in the new fulfilment centre, which will cover 140,000sq ft once complete
// The new warehouse will be located in Bleiswijk, near Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Zalando has announced plans to build a new warehouse in The Netherlands to bolster its expansion across Western Europe.
The warehouse, to be located in an existing business part in Bleiswijk, near Rotterdam, will be 140,000sq ft and will come about as a result of a €200 million (£180 million) investment from the online retailer.
The new warehouse will create 1500 new jobs and serve Zalando’s Benelux, France, Spain and the UK & Ireland markets with a storage capacity of 16 million items.
Zalando said the new warehouse is expected to start operating in summer 2021 and one of its aims is to help shorten delivery times.
The Berlin-based retailer added that the new warehouse “will have the highest level of automation within Zalando’s network” while also having environmentally sustainable features such as solar panels on the roof of the building.
“A strong logistics network is the foundation for realising our growth strategy and the vision of becoming the ‘Starting Point for Fashion’,” Zalando customer fulfilment SVP Jan Bartels said.
“By constructing a new state-of-the-art centre, we are confident that this is an important step forward in building the infrastructure to achieve €20 billion (£18 billion) in gross merchandise volume by 2023/24.”
Zalando currently operates nine other fulfilment centres across Europe.
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