UPS Breaks Ground on New Facility in Germany

By Robert Demeter

UPS Bielefeld Groundbreaking

Bielefeld, Germany—UPS recently broke ground on a new $80 million distribution center in Bielefeld, Eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The project is scheduled to be operational by the end of Oct. 2017, and will replace the existing UPS center in Herford, Germany.

The Bielefeld facility is part of UPS’s plan to invest $2 billion in its European infrastructure by 2019. All 330 Herford employees will have the opportunity to transfer to the new facility when it is completed.

“This groundbreaking affirms UPS’s commitment to companies of all sizes in the region and our trust in the German economy,” Frank Sportolari, president of UPS Germany, said in prepared remarks. “This investment secures strategic future development opportunities for UPS and our customers in Eastern North-Rhine Westphalia.”

The brand-new center will have an operating area of approximately 161,500 square feet, and will be equipped with automated sorting systems capable of processing more than 22,500 packages per hour. The facility will consist of 65 loading and unloading bays for containers and 115 parking positions for UPS delivery trucks.

“North Rhine-Westphalia is the number one logistics area in Germany,” Michael Groschek, transport minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, said in a statement. “The fact that a company like UPS is investing millions in Bielefeld shows the attractiveness of our state for the logistics industry. It also indicates that this industry sector is an important growth engine for us.”

UPS has been serving customers in Germany for 40 years and currently employs more than 18,000 workers at 83 facilities across the country. In 1976, UPS made its first foray outside of North America into Germany, which was its entry point into the European market.

Most recently, UPS announced a $200 million package operations facility in Salt Lake City, and in late August, the company broke ground on a $300 million, 838,000-square-foot facility in Louisville, Ky.

Photo courtesy of UPS