Royal Mail unveiled its new state-of-the-art North West Super Hub in Warrington which can process more than 800,000 parcels a day and is set to transform the company as a parcels business.

Officially opened by Andy Carter, MP for Warrington South, the Super Hub measures 32,000m2 - equivalent to 4.5 football pitches - and can sort up to 40,000 items an hour.

The huge new facility will operate seven days a week and houses the latest scanning, sorting and tracking technology.

With domestic parcel volumes up more than 30% compared to pre-pandemic levels, it will support customer's growing demands for next day delivery and delivery of larger items.

The Super Hub represents a significant investment in the North West by Royal Mail. Located near major urban centres including Manchester and Liverpool, and the warehousing and fulfilment sites of online retailers, it will employ around 600 people at full capacity.

As part of Royal Mail's Steps to Zero environmental plan to achieve average per parcel emissions of 50gCO2e and reach net zero by 2040, the Warrington hub is also home to a fleet of 20 bio-compressed natural gas (bio-CNG) HGVs, as part of a fleet of 80 vehicles across the business that will be fully operational by Spring 2023, which help reduce direct emissions by around 85% compared to their diesel equivalent.

Simon Thompson, CEO of Royal Mail, said: 'Royal Mail is now a parcels business that also delivers letters. Our new parcels Super Hub will allow us to give consumers exactly what they want - being able to order products very late in the day to have them delivered the very next day, seven days a week.

'This is a giant step forward in our journey to 90% parcel automation by the end of next year. We can compete and win in the parcels market which will give our team the job security they deserve both today and tomorrow.'

Andy Carter, MP for Warrington South, said: 'It's been brilliant to officially open Royal Mail's brand new Super Hub based here in Warrington. The sheer size and scale of the place is so impressive - the facility is four and a half football pitches in size and able to sort up to 40,000 items per hour.

'Given the disruption of the pandemic and the increased demand for online ordering, it's great to see Royal Mail investing in facilities fit to meet these challenges, as well as creating hundreds of jobs for local people in our region.'

Royal Mail is pursuing an ambitious programme of automation across the business. This year, it has installed 10 parcel sorting machines in mail centres across the country, including in Nottingham, Chester and Cardiff. Its Midlands Super Hub, based in Daventry, is on track to open in Summer 2023.

In March 2022, Royal Mail reached the milestone of 50% parcels automated - up from 33% last year. The company is aiming to reach its overall target of 90% parcel automation by 2023-24.

The Super Hub comprises an Automated Parcel Sorting System (APSS), designed and manufactured by Beumer Group - the first of its kind in Royal Mail's network sorting both small and large parcels

A network of cameras in the hub quickly captures a six-sided image of each parcel before scanning its barcode, reading its address and recording its size and weight after which it is sent out for despatch across Royal Mail's network.

This data will enable Royal Mail to more efficiently track parcel sizes and also provides customers with more information about the journey of their parcels

There are three tracks in the hub which each move at 4.6mph. Over the course of a night, each track travels 98 miles - the equivalent of 3.7 marathons.

Inside are 102 staircases with about 1,500 steps in total - almost enough to climb to the top of the Eiffel Tower.

About Royal Mail plc

The Group consists of two principal operations; our UK-based operation which includes Royal Mail and Parcelforce Worldwide (Royal Mail) and our international operation, General Logistics Systems (GLS). Royal Mail is the leading provider of postal and delivery services in the UK and the UK's designated universal postal service provider. Through the Royal Mail Core Network, the company delivers a one-price-goes-anywhere service on a range of parcels and letters products. Royal Mail has the capability to deliver to more than 31 million addresses in the UK, six days a week (excluding UK public holidays). Parcelforce Worldwide operates a separate UK network which collects and delivers express parcels. General Logistics Systems (GLS) operates one of the largest ground-based, deferred parcel delivery networks in Europe.

Contact:

E: oliver.finegold@royalmail.com

E: press.office@royalmail.com

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