Royal Mail Opens New Automated Super Hub – Becoming a Parcels Business

Royal Mail today unveiled its new state-of-the-art North West Super Hub in Warrington which can process more than 800,000 parcels a day and is set to transform the company into a parcels business.

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Officially opened by Andy Carter, MP for Warrington South, 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.

Royal Mail Super Hub Launches in North West UK

The Super Hub represents a significant investment in the North West by Royal Mail. Located near major urban centers including Manchester and Liverpool, and the warehousing and fulfillment 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.

“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,” said Simon Thompson, CEO, Royal Mail.

“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.”

Royal Mail is pursuing an ambitious program of automation across the business. This year, it has installed 10 parcel sorting machines in mail centers across the country, including in Nottingham, Chester, and Cardiff. Its Midlands Super Hub, based in Daventry, is on track to open in the Summer of 2023.

In March 2022, Royal Mail reached the milestone of 50% of automated parcels – up from 33% last year. The company is aiming to reach its overall target of 90% parcel automation by 2023-24.