Berlin-based e-commerce powerhouse Zalando has opened what it claims is the largest shoe and fashion warehouse in Europe – a €170 million, 120,000 square metre logistics facility in the central German city of Erfurt.
According to Bild, around 750 workers have been testing what it dubbed “Europe’s biggest wardrobe” since August, with around 4,000 expected to be employed there by 2014. Only the first two halls are open at present with the next expansion expected in 2013.
Soon the warehouse will be processing and sending out 100,000 different items of clothing, including shoes, sports equipments and accessories, to 14 countries around Europe.
Rubin Ritter, the head of Zalando, said: “We are proud that in less than a year, we could build a logistics centre of this magnitude.”
According to Gründerszene, Matthias Machnig, the Economics Minister of Thuringia, the German state of which Erfurt is the capital, said at Wednesday’s official opening: “Jobs, the strengthening of infrastructure and corporate tax revenues are the positive consequences of such a facility.”
A second logistics centre, this time 75,000 square metres in size, is being built for Zalando in the west of Germany in Mönchengladbach. It is another sign of the company’s aggressive growth strategy. Zalando, a Rocket Internet company which was based on US firm Zappos, was founded in 2008.