Palletways, belonging to Imperial, a DP World Company, has invested in a new eco-friendly hub that will speed up deliveries to the Catalan area and Balearic Islands and bring efficiencies across the Group.

The new 2,100 sqm hub in Palletways’ Iberia network is situated in the ZAL in the Port of Barcelona, renowned as one of the most strategic locations in the Mediterranean corridor. The launch, which comes in response to the growing demand for logistics services in the region, will help the network deliver pallets in a faster and more environmentally conscious way. The network will also offer hourly, flexible services to further enhance its service to customers in the north-east area of the Iberian Peninsula.

The launch of the new facility will bring operational efficiencies to the local network and across the Group. As it will initially handle domestic shipments, this will free up capacity at its hubs in Madrid and Zaragoza which handle international consignments from the Group’s networks in the UK, Benelux, Germany, Hungary and Italy .

Luis Zubialde, CEO for the Palletways Group, said: “We’re constantly looking for ways that we can refine how we do things to provide our members and their customers with an even better service. We’re delighted the new Barcelona hub is a reality – it will optimize our domestic operation and increase efficiencies across the Group.

“Our new facility at ZAL is part of our strategy to expand and improve our Group-wide services. While we’ll initially concentrate on the domestic business, the geographic location boasts links to France, Andorra and northeast Spain which will help us realise our ambitious plans for it to become an international hub, future-proofing the network for the long-term.”

The new hub will allow a greater and greener flow of goods but importantly, it will help to minimize Palletways’ impact on the environment. It features a wealth of eco-friendly features such as LED lighting, consumption management systems for optimum use of resources and space to accommodate mega-trucks and high-capacity vehicles.

The launch of the new operation in Barcelona takes the number of hubs in Palletways’ Iberia network to four across Spain and Portugal.