Marked Strengthening of Fiege Textile Logistics

Laying of foundation stone for a new logistics centre for Esprit

Greven/Mönchengladbach, May 3, 2010 – As a project that exhibits a major signal for the industry is how Dr. Hugo Fiege, Chairman of Fiege Stiftung & Co. KG, described the construction of a new logistics centre in the traditional textile stronghold, Mönchengladbach, which the logistics provider from Greven in Westphalia will be erecting and operating for its customer, Esprit, one of the leading international lifestyle companies.

At the official laying of the foundation stone for the new Esprit DC Europe (Distribution Center Europe) on April 30 of this year, numerous visitors had convened from the world of politics and business, in addition to the North Rhine Westphalian Minister for Economic Affairs, Christa Thoben, whose visit Dr. Fiege saw as a clear sign of the strong potential of logistics in NRW, equally recognised and optimally supported and developed by the government of the land.

"With this project Germany's most important location for logistics, North Rhine Westphalia, is further strengthened, thereby once again demonstrating its capacity for innovation. All parties involved have shown an extraordinary degree of courage. Fiege, Union Investment Real Estate and Esprit will create here, with the support of the land's own business promotion agency, the  Wirtschaftsförderungs-Gesellschaft NRW.Invest, a logistics facility of pan-regional relevance on an area of 50,000 square metres where 520 people will find a job. In other words: The successful co-operation between these three firms is to the benefit of us all – the city, the region, and the land", said the Minister during her address given to 130 listeners.

With a total investment volume of over Euro 60 million a facility is currently being built at the "Regiopark" industrial zone which boasts outstanding links to road, railway and air transport and which features three hall segments to be set up during the first phase of the expansion, with an option to expand by a further 60,000 square metres. The new centre's lavish information technology and interior installations which cater to storing, order picking, packaging and the dispatch of Esprit merchandise, consume around Euro 30 million alone.

The owner of the new facility is Union Investment Real Estate GmbH, who had purchased the real property for its open real estate fund, UniImmo Deutschland. During the final expansion phase of the logistics complex a photovoltaic unit is planned for the hall's entire roof. From the design to planning and implementation, including locating the land and investors, to the turnkey completion, the project lies in the hands of Fiege's subsidiary, Fiege Engineering. The objective of this new Esprit DC Europe is to supply Esprit's European clientele with garments and store merchandise. Supply chain duties include collecting the merchandise from global production sites, customised order picking, value added services and the transport to the sales outlets in Germany and other European countries.

"We are pleased to have found a competent partner in Fiege who, just like we do, focuses on innovation, and who continues to grow jointly with the global lifestyle brand Esprit", says Ernst-Peter Vogel, managing director of Esprit Europe Services GmbH. The Esprit DC Europe Mönchengladbach presents a further milestone in Fiege's textile logistics. "With the development of the highly-modern hangar that features numerous technical installations we, as a service provider, cater to the successful and continued growth of the Esprit brand", explained Dr. Hugo Fiege. For ten years now, Esprit products have undergone logistical handling at the Fiege Mega Center in Ibbenbüren, their starting point of dispatch. Some logistical segments will continue to be organised for Esprit from the Ibbenbüren site, one of the Fiege Group's most important locations for fashion logistics, even following the opening of the new centre.

 

 

Further information:
The Fiege Group, headquartered in Greven/Germany, is among Europe's leading logistics providers. Its competence lies in particular in the development and realisation of integrated, holistic supply chain systems and it is considered a pioneer of contract logistics. The Group has a workforce of around 20,000 world-wide. 210 branches and co-operations in 18 countries form a dense supply-chain network. 3 million square metres in warehouse and logistics space are proof of the company's efficiency.


Esprit: During the 2008/09 financial year, Esprit Holdings Limited generated global consolidated sales of around EUR 3.1 billion (as per 30.06.2009). The net earnings amount to around EUR 428 million. Esprit Holdings Limited shares are listed at the Hong Kong stock exchange and are included in the Hang-Seng-Index as well as the MCSI-Index Hong Kong and the FTSE All-World-Index for Hong Kong. The Group runs over 830 retail shops directly world-wide and distributes its products to more than 12,900 wholesale sites around the globe. The company calls 1.1 million square metres of retail space in over 40 countries its own (update: 12/2009).

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