Arvato Opens E-Commerce Distribution Center

Arvato SCM Solutions continues the expansion of its worldwide network of locations and has ceremoniously inaugurated a modern e-commerce distribution center in Dorsten/Marl (North RhineWestphalia/Germany). The site will serve as a logistics hub for the supply chain service provider’s growing e-commerce business, and simultaneously as a competence center for e-commerce and omnichannel, providing integrated, digitally driven solutions for wellknown brand-name companies.

Thanks to its central location in Germany’s most populous federal state, North Rhine-Westphalia, and its immediate proximity to the Benelux countries, the site ideally complements Arvato’s existing logistics centers in the Netherlands, East Westphalia, Hanover, and the Halle/Leipzig area. “Dorsten/Marl is part of our anchor site strategy. We are resolutely pursuing organic growth,” explains Frank Schirrmeister, CEO of Arvato SCM Solutions. “Our worldwide network currently comprises 70 locations in 20 countries. It supports our clients’ growth in their core markets with scalable infrastructures and high flexibility, while at the same time allowing them rapid access to new international markets” In 2017 alone, Arvato SCM Solutions opened ten new sites in the USA, France, Poland and the Netherlands.

The new logistics facility in Dorsten/Marl has 60,000 square meters of usable space in its first stage of expansion. “As one of Bertelsmann’s growth platforms, we are once again demonstrating our longstanding ties with the state of North Rhine-Westphalia,” emphasizes Frank Schirrmeister. Dorsten/Marl is the most modern of all the 13 sites that Arvato SCM Solutions currently operates in North Rhine-Westphalia with more than 4,300 employees.

After starting with e-commerce services for the first fashion and lifestyle customers in the second half of 2017, the logistics center is now operating at full capacity. “With investments of around €30 million, we have created more than 300 new jobs in logistics and customer service,” says Nils Klose, President Consumer Products at Arvato SCM Solutions. Arvato SCM Solutions in Dorsten/Marl has secured expansion options so that it can continue to take advantage of the ongoing, digitalization-fueled growth in online retail. Nils Klose: “With the Dorsten/Marl intermunicipal industrial park, we have found a location that allows us to expand to more than 200,000 square meters of usable space and is therefore ideally suitedfor our expanding e-commerce activities.”

Another advantage of the Dorsten/Marl site is its location in the immediate vicinity of the DPD and DHL Deutsche Post parcel centers, whereby DHL is even connected via factory traffic. This makes same-day delivery to end customers possible for the brands that Arvato SCM Solutions services at the site. Dorsten/Marl also has excellent transport links to several German motorways and the European transport network.

The e-commerce hub in Dorsten/Marl is equipped with state-of-the-art intralogistics systems in order to meet the requirements of both B2B and B2C e-commerce efficiently and quickly under one roof. An adapted conveying and sorting system ensures smooth materials flow across the various levels. A flexible adaptation for handling hanging goods and flat goods capacities is also possible. Equipped with 7,000 pallet spaces and 200,000 shelving spaces, the site can handle up to 20,000 items per day in incoming goods, and more than 30,000 parcels and 300 pallets in outgoing goods. All the processes necessary for comprehensive e-commerce fulfillment are managed with powerful IT systems. Besides IT, logistics, and transport management, integrated customer service is one of the success factors at the new e-commerce distribution center. On behalf of its brandname clients, Arvato employees handle direct communication with end customers and take care of all matters from customer enquiries to the execution of marketing campaigns.