UK prime minister Rishi Sunak has visited Mars and DHL’s London Gateway semi-automated logistics facility to meet staff and get a ‘first-hand experience of how goods flow through the UK supply chain and into shops and homes’.
The facility opened in June 2023, marking the second of two UK warehouses that Mars and DHL had planned to construct. The first facility, located in the East Midlands Gateway, was opened in May 2022.
The site achieved BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ certification and features 3,700 solar panels that produce 27% of the site’s power usage, LED lighting and an automated storage and retrieval system.
Other on-site sustainability features include rainwater harvesting and infrastructure supporting high-frequency equipment charging – which DHL has claimed leads to a 30% decrease in energy usage.
According to DHL, the facility is the tallest in Europe and currently handles 2,400 pallets of goods each day.
The prime minister toured Mars and DHL’s London Gateway distribution centre and members of DHL staff were invited to the latest ‘PM Connect’ town hall event.
Sunak said: “It was a pleasure to visit DHL’s London Gateway distribution centre to speak to staff and tour the impressive site. DHL and Mars’ £350m investment into this site is a big boost for the area, creating hundreds of jobs.
“Jobs create growth, and financial security which is one of my top priorities, and it was great to see this in action.”
Saul Resnick, CEO of DHL Supply Chain UK and Ireland, added: “We were delighted to welcome the prime minister to our world-class facility to show how DHL is enabling growth for British businesses, developing infrastructure for a more sustainable future and investing in talent.
“It was a fantastic opportunity for our colleagues to showcase the essential work they do to keep goods flowing around the country as well as ask important questions about the issues that matter to them.”
The government has encouraged the development of new facilities like this one, with chancellor of the exchequer Jeremy Hunt highlighting examples of foreign investment in the UK market as part of his speech to the House of Commons announcing the 2024 Spring Budget. He said: “In the short period since the Autumn Statement, Nissan have announced they’ll build two new electric car models in the UK, Microsoft and Google have announced data centres worth over £3bn […] and the Global Investment Summit unlocked £30bn of investment”.
What’s more, data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has shown that, in 2022, the manufacturing sector represented 9.4% of the gross value added (GVA) to the UK economy, while transport and storage contributed 3.5%.
