Confectionary giant, Mars UK announces a new partnership with logistics company, DHL to build two state-of-the-art warehousing facilities that will reduce Mars’ carbon footprint by 7.7%.
The multi-year partnership to construct the new sites, based in the Midlands and East London represents an investment of £350m ($476m) and have been designed with sustainability at front of mind.
The buildings themselves will be partially solar powered and rated in the top 1% of non-domestic buildings in the UK environmentally.
Mars UK transport over 1.2 million pallets of their products every year, which is the equivalent of shipping the height of Mount Everest every other day.
The new logistics operation will remove 7.7% of current Mars transport from roads, equating to a million miles a year, All while increasing warehousing capacity by over 50%. Ensuring that Mars is well positioned to keep pace with increasing consumer demand.
Tim Walker, Supply Chain Director at Mars UK said:
Our partnership with DHL will deliver a world class logistics operation that is sustainable, smart and agile. What is good for our business is also good for the planet.
This project is a meaningful step in our sustainability journey as we look to create the world we want tomorrow – which we know starts with how we do business today.
Jim Hartshorne, Managing Director, Retail & Consumer & Ireland, DHL Supply Chain said:
We’re delighted to be extending our global partnership with Mars in the construction and management of these sites. Our shared environmental commitments are supported by this investment and we are creating long term, exciting jobs in both of these communities.
This project will be the foundation of the UK logistics chain for Mars for many years to come and we are incredibly proud to be selected to lead in this project.
The two purpose-built depots, ‘East Midlands Gateway’ and ‘London Thames Gateway’, will be operational in the spring of 2022 and 2023 respectively. The sites will have a combined square footage of over a million feet and they will both have state of the art high bay facilities which include innovative automated pallet storage.
