Parcel company Hermes UK has announced an £11 million investment in its international business to continue to support the booming global e-commerce market. This includes creating a dedicated International Division tasked with launching a range of new integrated end-to-end services including inbound, outbound and reverse logistics to expand the existing offering combined with brand new global, cross-border products for retail customers, SMEs, marketplaces and consumers.
To facilitate this expansion, Hermes has opened three brand-new dedicated facilities: one in Essex that is 140,000ft2 with capacity to process around 150,000 parcels a day; one at Heathrow at 80,000ft2 to manage its export and import operations; and one in Utrecht, part of a 80,000ft2 facility, which will be the main transhipment hub in the Netherlands with a processing capacity of 70,000. More than 150 jobs have been created, ranging from managerial to warehousing roles.
Heading up the International Division is Malcolm Barrell who is joining as Managing Director, International, reporting into CEO Martijn de Lange. He brings with him over 35 years of industry experience having worked at Director level for both DHL and Bpost International, and most recently as CEO for FedEx’s cross-border brand, P2P. Ed Ayyad takes the role of Director of International with over 15 years of industry experience in international distribution, most recently as Managing Director of P2P.
Hermes UK has also launched a powerful fulfilment platform which can fulfil orders both domestically and internationally from its UK and European sites. It has the ability to connect to any website or marketplace which will now fulfil to 220 countries (up from 190) and is supported by a new International tracking API to enable customers to receive full end-to-end tracking.
“This is about taking our existing international proposition and elevating it to create a best-in-class solution for our clients that enables us and them to maximise the opportunities that are being created by the fast-growing international e-commerce market,” commented Martijn de Lange, CEO at Hermes UK. “This is increasingly important Post Brexit and as the world starts to reopen following the global pandemic and we are committed to building on our unrivalled domestic success to become a globally recognised brand trading in all territories. We were delighted to launch the proposition by welcoming over 100 leading retailers to our Essex facility this week.”
