DACHSER builds new warehouse in Memmingen
Fully automated and climate-friendly: Logistics provider creates 52,000 additional pallet spaces at its largest operational location.
DACHSER is expanding its Allgäu logistics center with high-bay storage for non-chilled food and food packaging. The family-owned company is investing some EUR 25 million in the project. Designed for sustainable operations, the new warehouse is due to open in summer 2022.
“Now is the time for us to invest in the largest expansion of our Allgäu logistics center to date,” branch manager Thomas Henkel said at the symbolic groundbreaking ceremony. “Our existing customers are growing at a rate of about 5 percent a year and they need more storage space. We also want to create capacity for new customer business.”
Covering an area of just 7,500 m2 but at 32 meters tall, the new high-bay storage facility will provide space for 52,000 pallets of non-chilled food and food packaging. The warehouse is fully automated and designed to store fast-moving products from different customers with a high percentage of full pallets. Around 5,000 pallets a day will be stored or withdrawn from stock via 22 loading and unloading gates for trucks and over a handling area of around 2,600 m2. Installed conveyor systems will, for the most part, automate this process. On the upper level above the loading area, 2,300 m2 will be available for manual picking and finishing operations.
Our existing customers are growing at a rate of about 5 percent a year and they need more storage space. We also want to create capacity for new customer business.
Thomas Henkel, General Manager DACHSER Allgäu Logistics CenterA total of 40 employees from the Memmingen branch will work in the new high-bay warehouse. “Intelligent automation technology relieves employees – our scarcest and most valuable resource – of much of the manual storage or withdrawal work, so they can concentrate on value-added services that are more demanding,” explains Stefan Hohm, DACHSER’s Chief Development Officer who is in charge of worldwide contract logistics at the company.
Climate-friendly operation and sustainable construction
DACHSER will generate most of the energy required to operate the high-bay warehouse using a photovoltaic system with a power output of approximately one megawatt. To cover times when the photovoltaic system does not supply sufficient power, the warehouse will use carbon-neutral electricity, 100 percent of which is produced from hydropower. A cogeneration unit is also being considered as backup. The new warehouse will be connected to the district heating system of a regional thermal power plant and will be able to draw heat from there, and also feed in surplus energy. This has been the case for the Allgäu logistics center since 2010. Moreover, the plan is for electricity produced at the new facility to be used for charging battery-electric vehicles and, in the long term, for hydrogen production. Germany’s conservation laws call for the impact of construction to be offset, which DACHSER will achieve in close coordination with the Memmingen municipal authorities through an extensive planting program on the company grounds. In addition, all precipitation collected on the company premises will be added to the groundwater reserves.
“Our new warehouse in Memmingen is a lighthouse project at one of the leading contract logistics locations in the DACHSER network,” says Alexander Tonn, COO Road Logistics at DACHSER. “The Memmingen location stands for extensive expertise in warehousing and value-added services, and is perfectly positioned to connect to our efficient European transport network. But above all, our Allgäu logistics center cultivates long-term collaborative partnerships with its customers, successfully and continuously improving their logistics balance sheets. When it opens, our new warehouse will play an especially important role in that respect.”
DACHSER’s Allgäu logistics center in Memmingen is the company’s largest operational location worldwide. Its 880 employees manage transport and warehousing for industrial and consumer goods as well as chilled and non-chilled food items. Every day, they handle 3,000 metric tons of food and 2,500 metric tons of industrial and consumer goods. The branch’s special strength lies in contract logistics. When the new warehouse goes into operation in summer 2022, DACHSER will be able to offer its customers in Memmingen over 200,000 pallet spaces in total.