Hermes Fulfilment commissions Germany’s largest carpet warehouse in Erfurt (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 i 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.
“There are various reasons why the new warehouse in Erfurt is an excellent addition to our network,” says Kevin Kufs, CEO at Hermes Fulfilment. “We’re increasing the warehouse capacity for our partners, gaining valuable service and cost benefits and will be able to process orders more quickly in future. We also expect to create up to 100 new jobs in Erfurt.” The carpet warehouse is currently home to around 30 employees and this number will rise continuously up until the summer, when the site is expected to reach full operating capacity. Hermes Fulfilment is mainly looking for warehouse employees in the areas of arrival of goods, order picking and outgoing goods, as well as motivated apprentices for the roles of warehouse specialist and warehouse logistics specialist. “We mostly need new staff in the blue-collar jobs,” says Volker Weidemann. But what makes working here special? “Everyone gets to do a bit of everything here, so the working day is really varied,” adds the Plant Manager. This would mean, for instance, that employees who usually sit at a desk all day will get a forklift licence so that they can work in the warehouse when required, while warehouse staff are tasked with commercial activities. Volker Weidemann: “You’re guaranteed a variety of tasks.”