Danish retailer Søstrene Grene has declared its distribution centre in Venlo, the Netherlands, open. Spanning over 45,000 m², it supports future growth, is strategically located to reduce CO₂ emissions, and has been built by developer Prologis with a strong focus on environmental performance.
23 April marked the grand opening of the Danish retail chain Søstrene Grene’s distribution centre in Venlo, the Netherlands. The new facility will enable future growth for the retailer that operates more than 400 stores across Europe and has an ambition to reach 500 stores within the next few years.
The first deliveries to stores and online customers have already been made. According to Group CEO and Co-owner, Mikkel Grene, the grand opening of the facility in Venlo is an important milestone in the retail chain’s expansion plans and efforts to reduce CO2 emissions.
“Søstrene Grene is on an ambitious expansion journey. We have doubled our number of stores over the past decade and soon we are entering new markets. Our new distribution centre plays a key role in supporting future growth and reducing our operational climate footprint. Therefore, it marks an important milestone on our growth journey, and we are proud to officially declare it open.”
Strategically located to reduce CO2 emissions
The facility in Venlo is the second distribution centre of Søstrene Grene. It’s spanning over 45,000 m2, adding to their 28,000 m2 distribution centre in Denmark. The new facility has been strategically located to shorten the way to the growing number of customers and stores in parts of Europe.
“We have had a strong presence in the Dutch market since opening our first store in 2012 and today we operate 20 stores across the country. In 2020, we launched our Dutch webshop, and the Netherlands remains a very important market for us. With this central location, we are shortening distances to stores and online customers, contributing to CO₂ reductions, while also making our logistics setup more agile. Together with our set-up in Aarhus, it provides strong European coverage and a solid foundation for further growth,” says Mikkel Grene.
The distribution centre is located in Prologis Park Venlo DC9 with strong logistical accessibility. Products are shipped directly from suppliers via the port of Rotterdam, with containers transported to Venlo by river barges or freight trains, allowing more containers to be transported at a time.
Ambitious automation and logistics set-up
Besides shortening the distances to a range of stores and customers, the distribution centre itself contributes to CO₂ reductions. It has been built as an all-electric building, expected to achieve BREEAM Excellent and WELL Gold certifications. It includes a 3.3 MW rooftop solar installation that generates enough energy to contribute to the daily operations of the building and the local grid.
Søstrene Grene is also investing in automation to optimise workflows and reduce waste and energy consumption. This includes wrapping and packaging solutions to minimise material use, reduce excess air in boxes, and streamline the process, as well as a robotic picking solution for online orders that increases warehouse storage density, enables scaling and more dynamic operations.
“We continuously work to optimise and automate our processes and operations in Søstrene Grene. Together with our property partner Prologis, we have created a state-of-the-art distribution centre supporting both Søstrene Grene’s ambitious sustainability strategy and our ambition for a highly automated and professional logistics set-up,” says Mikkel Grene.
In addition to the above, the building features mezzanines, wide-aisle pallet racking and automation-ready zones. Beyond efficiency gains, the automation solutions also support a more ergonomic working environment.
Facts about the facility
- The distribution centre is spanning over 45,000 m². It has been built a s state-of-the-art sustainable construction with 3.3 MW solar power installed on the rooftop using reused building materials where possible.
- The building is ready for the BREEAM Excellent certificate - a recognised method for assessing the sustainability of buildings. An Excellent rating demonstrates the project’s commitment to minimising environmental and climate.
- The building is also ready for the Healthy building certificate of IWBI (International Well Building Institute). The WELL Building Standard™ is a scientifically based tool designed to create more thoughtful and conscious spaces to promote the health and well-being of employees.
- The outdoor landscape has been thoughtfully designed to balance functionality, well-being and biodiversity, featuring distinct garden areas, native and pollinator-friendly planting, habitat-supporting elements, and an integrated calisthenics park.
- The building is equipped with mezzanines, wide-ailes pallet racking and automation-ready zones for shuttle systems and operations.
- A next-generation robotic picking solution increases storage density and efficiency by up to 400% while enabling faster, more ergonomic picking through a Shelf-to-Person system.
- Automated wrapping and packing solutions reduce waste, lower CO₂ emissions and transport costs, and boost efficiency with automated scanning, sizing, sealing and labelling, handling up to 900 boxes per hour.
- In-house cardboard shredding solution turns waste cardboard into new packaging material. Instead of using inflatable plastic, orders are packed with protective pouches that are made with FSC®-certified paper and contain shredded cardboard - recycled from the waste cardboard. This new solution not only protects the items but also helps cut down on plastic and reduce waste.
About Søstrene Grene
Søstrene Grene is a Danish retail chain which since 1973 has worked to bring beauty and joy to everyday lives through ever-changing aesthetic design made to create moments of ‘hygge’.
The brand offers a wide assortment within home interiors, furniture, hobby items, kitchen supplies, children’s toys, specialty food and candy, gift-wrapping, party supplies and more. The family-owned company is now managed by the second generation after the founders from the headquarters in Aarhus, Denmark. The chain operates more than 400 stores across 17 markets as well as webshops across 16 markets.
Søstrene Grene is working to reduce its climate footprint and has in recent years – amongst other initiatives – phased-out a line of single-use products, focused on choosing more re-used product materials and prioritised logistics solutions with lower carbon emissions. Søstrene Grene has committed to a number of ambitious climate reductions targets towards 2034 all of which have been validated by the renowned climate standard Science Based Targets Initiative.
Read more about Søstrene Grene on https://sostrenegrene.com/ or on the press site here: https://press.sostrenegrene.com/
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