US company XPO Logistics has opened a new transport and distribution centre in Alicante. Located on the Llano del Espartal industrial estate five kilometres from the city centre, this is the fourth to be opened in the Valencia Region, as well as two in Valencia and one in Castellón. With a total of 33 loading bays, it occupies an area of 5,000 square metres.

The new logistics centre will be dedicated to groupage and pallet services, and will use innovative tools to improve efficiency and real-time cargo delivery tracking. It will transport over 1,000 pallets a day for last-mile deliveries and overnight distribution of goods. Clients include omni-channel retail, the food, industrial and automotive sectors, and large retailers.

Employment and sustainability
Following the opening of the new centre, the company now has a total of 19,000 square metres of transport and distribution space in the Valencia Region, where it employs around 300 people, between direct and indirect jobs, and serves over 750 customers. It has 72 facilities throughout the Iberian Peninsula, with a total surface area of 229,000 square metres and 1,020 loading and unloading bays.

The Alicante site is the tenth logistics centre that XPO has opened since 2020, following those in La Coruña, San Fernando de Henares (Madrid), Castellbisbal (Barcelona), Benavente (Zamora), Heras (Cantabria), Irún (Gipuzkoa), Lugo, Valencia and Vitoria. It boasts LEED Gold green building certification and reduces electricity consumption from the grid by up to 40%, thanks to the 100 solar panels with an output of 500 megawatts that have been installed.

A very important milestone
XPO's managing director for southern Europe and Morocco, Massimo Marsili, said that the opening of this facility “represents a very important milestone on the path to strengthening the capillarity of our transport and distribution network in the Iberian Peninsula, and in bringing flexibility, agility and a high quality of service to our customers in this region”.

Regional secretary for sustainable economy, productive industries, trade and consumption at the Generalitat Valenciana, María Empar Martínez, believes that the multinational’s presence “will contribute to making the industrial areas of Alicante a benchmark in Spain”. The city’s mayor, for his part, Luis Barcala Sierra, emphasised “the leading position that the provincial capital also holds in logistics distribution, and in this case last-mile distribution”.

^{Photo: XPO Logistics}