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Investment will expand DHL’s warehousing space by 12 million square feet, nearly doubling its total capacity by 2026
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The group’s workforce in India will also double to about 25,000
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Intra-city delivery fleet will be converted to green fuel and electric vehicles by 2025
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India’s investment-friendly environment makes it a preferred place for DHL
DHL Supply Chain is investing €500 million (US$500 million) in India over the next five years to significantly grow its warehousing capacity, workforce and sustainability initiatives in the country, the contract logistics solutions provider said in a statement.
With this investment, DHL will operate wholly owned large multi-client sites in India, adding 12 million square feet of warehousing space to the group’s portfolio.
The increased warehousing capacity is targeted to effectively cater to growing sectors such as e-commerce, retail, consumer, life sciences, technology, engineering and manufacturing, as well as automotive.
These warehouses will have accelerated digital technology solutions including assisted picking robots, indoor robotic transport, intelligent process automation, wearable devices, voice picking, inventory management robots and algorithmic optimizations.
“Despite the current economic and geopolitical uncertainties in the world, we see enormous growth potential in the Asia Pacific region, with India making a significant contribution. As a dynamic, stable and fast-growing economy, the Indian nation plays a key role for the global economy,” said Oscar de Bok, chief executive of DHL Supply Chain.
India’s investment-friendly and entrepreneurial environment makes it a preferred place for Deutsche Post DHL Group to even accelerate its investments as it expands further into emerging markets, a key aspect of the company’s growth strategy.
“With a rich pool full of highly qualified young talents and innovative digital entrepreneurs, India is a favourite hub for our global contract logistics business in DHL Supply Chain and one of our priority markets,” said De Bok said.
DHL Supply Chain India will add 12 million square feet of capacity in wholly owned DHL multi-client sites in key cities such as Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, National Capital Region (NCR) and Pune. These cities are among the top contributors to India’s overall GDP.
More multi-client sites are being built in the fast-growing state capitals and tier 2 cities such as Ambala, Baddi, Cochin, Coimbatore, Guwahati, Sanand, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Indore, Lucknow, Bhubaneshwar, Hosur, and Visakhapatnam.
DHL Supply Chain India will also open two new business support centers (BSC) in Bangalore and Pune within the next 12-18 months. It currently runs three BSCs in Mumbai, Gurgaon and Chennai.
These BSCs provide 24/7 value-added services including domestic and international transport control towers, business analytics to support decision-making, freight bill audit payment, order to cash, LLP control towers and similar support services to its customers.
Part of DHL Supply Chain’s investing plan is to double the size of its Indian workforce to 25,000 by 2025. Investment in skills development and resourcing centers is being undertaken to train employees with certification programs to prepare them for work process changes brought about by rapid transformations and digitalization in the industry.
The first resourcing center has opened in Bangalore with more to follow in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata.
DHL Supply Chain’s SmarTransport division will also leverage its warehouse investments to further accelerate transport growth by providing strategic, scalable solutions to large customers enabling economies of scale with end-to-end service offerings.
DHL Supply Chain offers a full suite of transport solutions including full truck load (FTL), part truck load (PTL), “milk runs”, secondary transport, intra-city and inter-city air movements.
