Contract logistics at the top

Hellmann has been responsible for fulfillment for Hunkemöller at the Osnabrück site since 2009 and provides value-added services and returns processing in addition to classic warehouse services, storage, picking and shipping.

Starting with ten employees, today up to 140 Hellmann employees work for Hunkemöller and take care of online orders from large parts of Europe. There is no end to growth in sight. By 2022, the international lingerie manufacturer, which is part of the Washington D.C.-based Carlyle Group, aims to triple its online shipping volume and increase its daily order volume to up to 43,000 orders. This will require up to 200 employees.

"What sounds very ambitious is not so far away for us," explains Marcel Winkler, Branch Manager at Hellmann's Osnabrück site. "So far, Hunkemöller has always achieved its targets in full, which is why we are actually expecting a tripling of the shipping volume," Winkler continues. This is also supported by the positive economic situation and the consumer-friendly mood of households in large parts of Europe. Digitalization is doing the rest and further boosting online retail.

Shopping across all borders and around the clock: cross-border and new delivery concepts on the last mile offer enormous potential for manufacturers and retailers, but also pose major challenges for logistics process chains. In addition, customers today expect logistics that not only cover all channels, but that services such as click-and-collect or click-and-return are also standard. The boundaries between B2B and B2C are becoming increasingly blurred, omnichannel is a reality.

Wanted: a reliable partner for a strong brand

"A strong brand, high quality, short delivery times and excellent service are important ingredients in online retail to create positive shopping experiences and increase customer satisfaction. For this reason, we need a reliable logistics partner, which we have found in Hellmann," comments Gijs van Engelen, Director Omnichannel Hunkemöller.

In order to keep pace with this development and at the same time create space for innovative and individualized value-added services, large parts of the outgoing goods processes at Hellmann's logistics center will be automated in future. The working time model will also be extended to a two-shift model six days a week. In addition, warehouse processing will be relocated within the city, as the previous Hellmann e-commerce location has reached its limits. Hunkemöller's new home will be the 30,000 m² multi-user logistics center in Osnabrück to accommodate Hunkemöller's ambitious development.

At the heart of the new logistics concept is a container conveyor system that connects the picking area (shelving racking system) with the dispatch area over a length of around 500 meters and makes personnel-intensive transport processes largely superfluous. Two lines arranged one above the other regulate the flow of material and empties and can transport up to 1,500 items per line and hour.

Shelf system with individually customizable zones

Picking takes place in two stages. This strategy enables a high degree of compression of the small-item product range in the picking process. Here, the entire quantity of an item is picked by one picker, with the effect that the number of accesses and the amount of walking involved in the picking process are minimized. Subdividing the shelving system into individually adaptable zones also ensures optimum use of resources.