Asendia has installed automated sorting and six new robots for over-labelling at its parcel processing centre at Heathrow.

It says that the system will drive a significant parcel throughput increase on behalf of retailers, e-commerce brands and other clients, achieving a rate of up to 7,200 parcels per hour, with the site open seven days a week, and able to operate 24 hours per day.

Asendia UK, whose clients include Asos, Boohoo, Boden, Chilly’s, Bali Body and Urban Outfitters, has invested £2.5 million of CAPEX in these improvements.

Parcels arrive onsite and an automated cross-belt sorter, with scanners, printers, digital photography and six robots together take care of the relabelling, routing, sorting, weighing and dimension-checking of parcels.

Luis Barros, COO at Asendia UK, says: “Retailers, many of whom have fast growing e-commerce audiences around the world, will benefit directly from seeing their parcels pass through our facility faster than ever. It’s not surprising several big brand names have already signed up to use the facility.”

He adds: “Having volumetrics for all parcels will help with revenue protection and better control of sizing, which is a key driver within distribution networks. Equally, having photos of all parcels is a very good security benefit.”

Simon Batt Asendia UK CEO, adds: “The successful launch of our new automated parcels hub is the culmination of a very complex project.”

“The team worked incredibly hard to get this up and running and I’m incredibly proud of all involved. We have future-proofed our core Heathrow facility for some years to come, to further grow with our e-commerce retailers and build on the successes of the past few years.”

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