DHL, the world's leading global express delivery and logistics company, will mark the start of construction at the company's new East Coast Distribution Facility in Allentown, Penn. today with a groundbreaking ceremony hosted by Steve White, senior vice president, Hub & Gateways, DHL Americas. Federal, state and local elected officials, as well as community and business leaders from the Allentown area and employees from the facility are scheduled to attend.
The new facility will be the principal DHL distribution center on the East Coast of the United States, the most significant concentration of businesses and consumers in the U.S., and will serve all major metropolitan areas in the region. The East Coast Distribution Facility is just one element of a $1.2 billion network investment program launched by DHL in June 2004. DHL is investing $107 million in the new facility, which is scheduled for completion by the fall of 2006. The new state-of-the art facility will employ approximately 340 people from the local community, and more than 175 construction jobs will be created while the facility is built out over the next year.
"The start of construction at our new East Coast Distribution Facility is part of our ongoing network investment program to develop the most robust and most flexible network across North America," said Steve White, senior vice president, Hub & Gateways, DHL Americas. "The new facility will add additional capacity to our network to enhance service levels and enable DHL to provide the highest quality service to customers across the country."
The new Allentown facility will provide much greater throughput capacity and allow for more rapid and the most accurate sorting of customers' materials through the use of state-of-the-art software technology, and sort-system equipment. The use of this new technology will translate to even greater consistency in the processing of customer material and enhance service performance for the region.
