DHL outlines extent of its robotic investment
DHL is to deploy 1,000+ additional robots across its UK Operations to support business growth in eCommerce and life sciences healthcare.
THE 3PL announced the investment of £550m (€637m) to expand its infrastructure and accelerate the rollout of automation across its customer operations in UK and Ireland, to support growing demand in the e-commerce and life sciences health care sectors.
The new investment builds on the €1bn already spent on automation by DHL Supply Chain over the last three years, with more than 3,200 digitalisation projects deployed across the UK & Ireland and EMEA. Until 2030, DHL’s contract logistics business plans to significantly increase its scale in UK&I as well as globally, with automation, robotics and digitalisation being a key enabler of this growth.
DHL Supply Chain UK & Ireland CEO Saul Resnick, says: “Momentum is only possible with the right infrastructure and expertise in place, tailored to support high-growth industries like e-commerce and healthcare. That’s why we’re investing for long-term impact, ensuring we are the go-to supply chain provider. The UK’s new Trade Strategy reinforces this direction by supporting fast-growing sectors and enhancing access to global markets – priorities that closely align with our investment focus and customer needs.”
More than 2,000 robots are working collaboratively alongside DHL’s associates in the EMEA region. More than 750 Assisted Picking Robots from our strategic partners Locus Robotics and 6 River Systems are live across 18 sites in the region and DHL recently deployed the first Boston Dynamics Stretch Robot for container unloading in the UK.
Further supporting DHL Group’s Strategy 2030, DHL will open a new DHL Health Logistics facility in Derby. The facility will feature cold chain and cleanroom facilities.
Tim Tetzlaff, global head of digital transformation, DHL Supply Chain, says: “At DHL, we’re driving the next wave of automation, not as a one-size-fits-all approach but as a set of intelligent, adaptive technologies tailored to the specific needs of individual sectors. For e-commerce, for example, where the market is evolving and demand is growing, we’re expanding our fulfilment capabilities to support that shift with automated solutions that significantly simplify high-volume operations. Meanwhile, in the growing life sciences sector, we’re leveraging automation to respond faster to demand and manage complexity at scale with end-to-end visibility, amid a larger focus on patient-centric approaches and differentiated routes to market.”
