Hermes Fulfilment GmbH adds another location to its network. The Otto Group’s central service provider for logistics and returns handling has commissioned what is now Germany’s largest carpet warehouse in the Erfurt neighbourhood of Stotternheim (Thuringia). The hall covers an area of around 50,000 square metres – roughly equivalent to seven football pitches. Half of this space is for carpets. At full capacity, up to 320,000 units can be stored in the 12-metre-high shelves. The rest of the warehouse is dedicated to small furniture items.
“Despite the challenging circumstances resulting from material shortages, price hikes and increased delivery times, we have managed to put the site into operation with just a few weeks’ delay,” says Plant Manager Volker Weidemann, reflecting positively on the successful launch. Around 260,000 carpets – some of which are still being stored in Löhne, North Rhine-Westphalia – will be transported to Erfurt gradually. “This is a major logistical effort which will take until late March to complete,” emphasises Volker Weidemann. In parallel to the move, Hermes Fulfilment is receiving new goods deliveries from the countries of origin, mainly Turkey, India and Pakistan. The range covers everything from small bathmats in large quantities to limited edition Persian rugs. Assuming the carpets have an average size of three square metres per unit, the entire inventory would be enough to cover the Theresienwiese, which hosts the Munich Oktoberfest every year, with two layers of carpet.
Hermes Fulfilment can process up to 10,000 orders per day in Erfurt. Every year, the company gets around 500,000 floor coverings for Otto Group retail companies on the way to the end customers. The carpets, by now ready for dispatch, are transported 50 kilometres from Erfurt to Ohrdruf in a shuttle truck. Hermes Fulfilment has been running one of Thuringia’s largest and most modern logistics centres there for the past 30 years. The site specialises in logistical processing of electrical devices, small furniture and consumer electronics up to 31.5 kilograms in weight. In Ohrdruf, the carpets are sorted at the delivery base and then funnelled into the delivery network of sister company Hermes Germany, before finally being delivered to end customers in Germany, Austria, France, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
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