Press releases
Villmergen: Swiss Post opens its largest warehousing logistics center
Swiss Post opened its largest warehousing logistics center in Villmergen in the Canton of Aargau today. Covering an area of around eight football pitches, the center stores, processes and sends goods for business customers in the retail and healthcare sectors. With its investment of 137 million francs, 100 new jobs and a building that meets the highest sustainability standards, Swiss Post is marking a milestone for Swiss logistics and strengthening Aargau as a business location.
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Swiss Post strengthens the future of Swiss logistics with strategic investment
Swiss Post is sorting and delivering more and more parcels for its private customers. It is also a key partner for many companies and institutions looking for smooth logistics solutions due to the ever-increasing speed of trade. As part of its “Swiss Post of tomorrow” strategy, Swiss Post is strengthening its position in the growth market of goods logistics. Under the Swiss Post Cargo market presence, it connects companies to domestic and international goods flows across borders via comprehensive transport, warehousing and customs clearance services. The new, highly automated warehousing logistics center in Villmergen plays a key role in this. Three modern warehousing systems enable processing of a wide variety of product formats. Swiss Post stores products, compiles orders, handles shipping and takes care of customs clearance on its customers’ behalf. To meet the growing demand in goods and healthcare logistics, Swiss Post has invested 137 million francs in a new warehousing logistics center at its existing site in Villmergen. Johannes Cramer, Head of Logistics Services and Member of Executive Management at Swiss Post, says of the center’s strategic importance: “By developing Villmergen, we’re making targeted investments in the future of logistics in Switzerland. The new center has all the features of cutting-edge warehousing logistics: the latest technology, sustainability and growth capacity. By offering 100 new jobs and seven apprenticeships, we’re not only creating space for large and challenging goods, but also generating prospects for our employees.”
Swiss Post ensures secure supply of healthcare products
Besides strengthening goods logistics, the new logistics center supports healthcare provision in Switzerland. More and more healthcare facilities, including hospitals and clinics, are entrusting their logistics to Swiss Post, allowing them to pool processes and reduce costs. Swiss Post stores medical products such as medicines, surgical instruments and knee prostheses in Villmergen under strictly controlled conditions. These are verified by Swissmedic and certified in accordance with the highest Good Distribution Practice (GDP) quality standards. It means that temperature, hygiene and safety are monitored at all times to ensure products arrive reliably and flawlessly at healthcare facilities such as hospitals. As a result, Swiss Post can deliver medical goods quickly, safely and correctly anywhere in Switzerland.
Swiss Post gives a major boost to the Canton of Aargau
Thanks to its central location in the Canton of Aargau, the center enjoys optimum connections to the Swiss and European transport networks. This enables deliveries from Switzerland and abroad to be processed and distributed quickly. Dieter Egli, President of the Cantonal Council and Head of the Department of Economic Affairs, is full of praise for Swiss Post’s commitment: “A well-functioning logistics infrastructure is essential for a modern society. That’s why I’m delighted that the logistics center in Villmergen has been expanded with new, innovative technologies. This will help our companies, improve our economic conditions and make Aargau an attractive business location.” Through the new warehousing logistics center, Swiss Post is not only investing in the future of Swiss logistics, but also setting new standards for sustainability in the planning and construction of logistics buildings. The upgraded photovoltaic system produces over 1,300 MWh of electricity each year, covering four fifths of the center’s energy requirements.
Key data on the new warehousing logistics center in Villmergen:
The logistics center is setting new standards for sustainability in logistics buildings:
The upgraded photovoltaic system produces over 1,300 MWh of electricity annually and covers 80 percent of electricity consumption through in-house production: this corresponds to the annual consumption of 300 households. The center has been awarded the Gold certificate from the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB), identifying it as a flagship project for environmentally friendly logistics and supporting the climate targets Swiss Post aims to reach by 2030.
At the heart of the logistics center in Villmergen is the latest automation technology:
To ensure maximum efficiency, the center combines three different, highly automated storage systems. Specifically, the site has an automatic high-bay pallet warehouse offering 24,000 spaces, 20,000 shelf spaces for medium-sized products and two robot-supported AutoStore systems with a total of 125,000 container spaces for small items. The automated infrastructure is supplemented by 12,000 conventional pallet spaces and 7,000 specialized spaces for the safe storage of dangerous substances.
The innovative AutoStore system plays a key role in the order process: as soon as an order is received, robots navigate through the 900- and 2,700-square-metre facilities to automatically hand over the required small items to employees for further processing. After professional packaging, the products are delivered via Swiss Post’s dense transport network – even overnight if required, directly to operating theatres or hospital wards.
Information
Swiss Post Media Unit, Jacqueline Bühlmann, +41 58 341 00 00, presse@swisspost.ch