DPD Ireland invests in infrastructure

With the value of e-commerce in Ireland set to grow to €13 billion in the next five years, DPD Ireland has been investing heavily in its equipment to help meet projected demand.

The company has invested in a seven bay building extension at its premises in the Athlone hub and will be putting in a Beumer Group fully automated parcel sortation system that will be completed at the end of July 2016.

DPD Ireland’s Athlone hub currently uses two line sorters that feed 40 chutes that sort parcels for the company’s network of 38 depots across the Republic of Ireland.

This will nearly triple the daily hub handling capacity from 60,000 parcels to 150,000. DPD Ireland’s Chief Executive Brendan O’Neill said, “Our business plan reflects this change in consumer behaviour… We recently invested €1.9 million in our company’s IT scanning system which ensures that we maintain our position at the forefront of innovation in delivery technology.”

With projected double digit growth in e-commerce, the parcel delivery business all over Europe is investing heavily in future capacity to meet demand even in a few years’ time. The change is also happening in the high street, as many retailers focus on their e-commerce businesses and reduce capacity in their shops as they realise that capacity can be extended in relatively cheap distribution centres and warehousing rather than rather more expensive shops. This shift in the focus of retail suggests that the confidence shown by delivery companies is well founded, though this may change should major e-commerce giants look at in-house delivery businesses. Amazon is one such company that appears to be doing this, and this could seriously impact the market in years to come. However, small and medium e-commerce companies are here to stay and they will not have the distribution and delivery networks that the giants do.

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