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METRO LOGISTICS and Hermes Fulfilment have agreed on a three-year cooperation for the logistics handling of large-volume goods.
At METRO LOGISTICS' Marl logistics center, large and bulky goods are handled on an area of more than 30,000 square meters, picked according to customer orders and fed into the Hermes logistics network. Hermes Fulfilment, the Otto Group's central warehouse logistics service provider, thus takes account of the growing volume of consignments and creates the conditions for on-time delivery to the end customer in 2-man and 1-man handling.
"We are pleased that in the course of our cooperation with METRO LOGISTICS, we will be able to benefit from up to 15% additional storage and handling capacity in a short period of time and thus meet the increased demand for large-volume logistics. After all, it is not only e-commerce with small-volume goods that is booming, the business with large-volume goods is also growing significantly, as more and more Otto Group customers are ordering furniture and large electrical appliances online," says Kevin Kufs, Chairman of the Management Board of Hermes Fulfilment GmbH.
Every day, up to 4,000 orders of large-volume items such as upholstered or box furniture and electrical appliances such as washing machines or refrigerators are processed on an area of more than 30,000 square meters at METRO LOGISTICS' Marl logistics center. A large part of the pre-commissioned consignments are subsequently delivered via the Hermes logistics site in Löhne. It specializes in handling items weighing more than 31.5 kilograms. The remaining shipments will be transferred to the Hermes site in Ohrdruf (Thuringia). The collaboration is initially scheduled to run for three years.
Arnd Stoehr, Vice President Marketing, Sales and IT of METRO LOGISTICS, adds: "The contract awarded by Hermes Fulfilment marks an important milestone for the transformation of METRO LOGISTICS from a group logistics company to a service provider operating in the independent logistics market. With a great deal of commitment and a hands-on-mentality, we managed to coordinate our operations and integrate Hermes Fulfilment into our processes in a record time of two months. This was only possible because the collaboration was based on mutual trust from the very first minute."
As the German market leader in 2-man handling, Hermes delivers around seven million shipments a year. The special feature of the handling of furniture and large electrical appliances is that the delivery is made after prior appointment with the end customer. "In this respect, it is essential that all logistics processes from the handling of goods at METRO LOGISTICS, through distribution by Hermes, to delivery to the end customer are closely interlinked. We are glad that we can convince Hermes Fulfilment of our high quality standards and support them in their further growth," says Karsten Heubach, Senior Business Development Manager at METRO LOGISTICS Germany GmbH.
