French delivery 3SI Group has announced plans to spend €15m on mechanising all of its e-commerce delivery specialist company Mondial Relay branches and boost their parcel handling capabilities. Parent company Otto Group published a statement on its website on Monday 11 January saiding that the investment plan will enable Mondial Relay to “to install cutting edge tools and facilities in every branch”.

There are three objectives to this project:

To enhance the quality of parcel sorting and traceability

To boost production capacity

To check the weight and volume of each parcel.

Chairman of Mondial Relay, Anoine Pottiez said of the investment programme, “This scheme will enable us to increase our flows processing capacity, to keep our parcels safe and secure and to deliver a higher quality service to our customers.

“We’re sending out a strong signal to other market players, confirming the trust placed in us by online retailers.”

Mondial Relay mechanised its branches in Lyon and Nice in October last year and the 3SI Group say that they have “already delivered clearly discernible results”.

The company also said in a statement, “Ergonomics and productivity have made a huge leap forward, with a 40% greater capacity to process additional flows coupled with the optimisation of parcel traceability. “

It added, “all of Mondial Relay’s branches in France will be fitted out by 2017 at the latest”.

There are 20 branches across France. These are: Nantes, Lieusaint, Toulouse, Metz, Saint Ouen, Rennes, Brive, Valence, Bordeaux, Blois, Lille, Montreuil, Reims, Caen, Rouen, Chambéry, Marseille, Clermont- Ferrand, Dijon, Montpellier, Metz and Strasbourg.

With France being the third largest economy in Europe in terms of the size of its e-commerce market, Mondial Relay’s move to mechanise its branches should ensure that it thrives in the coming years as the market looks set to help Europe into recovery financially.