UPS expands European facilities
15 / 09 / 2011
INTEGRATOR UPS is planning to enlarge its facilities at Cologne/Bonn Airport (Germany).
The US$200 million expansion project, due for completion in two years, will equip the existing facility with state-of-the-art technology and include a major extension to the existing building, partially dedicated to processing larger freight shipments.
The move will increase the hub’s package sorting capacity from 110,000 to 190,000 packages per hour.
The plan constitutes UPS’ largest facility investment outside the US.
“The Cologne hub has served us well for 25 years and continues to be exactly where we need it in order to best serve our customers on the important trading lanes within Europe and beyond to the Americas and Asia,” Jim Barber, president of UPS Europe, said. “This investment demonstrates our long-term confidence in, and commitment to, the European economy and its businesses that continue to produce goods sought after the world over.”
UPS has experienced a compound annual export volume growth rate of more than 10 per cent over the past 10 years in Europe.
The company is the largest employer at Cologne/Bonn Airport with almost 2,300 employees. The expansion is expected to create up to 200 new jobs at the hub by the end of 2013, a figure that will rise further as new capacity is used.
