WARRINGTON South MP Andy Carter was on hand to officially open a huge new Royal Mail sorting centre which can process more than 800,000 parcels a day at Omega, Warrington.
The new state-of-the-art North West Super Hub in Warrington is set to transform the company as a parcels business.
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 customers’ 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.”
Mr Carter said: “It’s a great honour to officially open this site for Royal Mail, it really is an incredible facility, using the latest automated technology to improve services for their customers – more of us expect next day and even same-day delivery and that’s very clearly Royal Mail’s focus.
“I’ve really enjoyed meeting the team who’ve built the machines and also local people from Penketh, Great Sankey and Stockton Heath who are now employed here as engineers, apprentices and in management roles. More than 600 people employed at this site alone makes Royal Mail one of the biggest employers in Warrington.”
Royal Mail is pursuing an ambitious programme of automation across the business. This year, it has installed six 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.
Andy Carter with Royal mail staff at the new hub
