Panalpina opens Prague warehouse for auto parts

After agreeing to be purchased by Danish logistics firm DSV earlier this year, Swiss forwarder Panalpina has not slowed down its own growth, in terms of warehouse space or merger and acquisitions (M&A) activity. Last week, Panalpina participated in an opening ceremony for its new 21,000-square-meter, 28-bay warehouse in Prague.

Two-thirds of the warehouse capacity is dedicated to MAHLE, a German automotive parts manufacturer and supplier, which is about to celebrate its 100th year in the business next year. The rest of the warehouse’s capacity will be set aside for “additional value-added services” for MAHLE and other customers, Panalpina said.

The warehouse is now the central distribution center for the inbound material for MAHLE’s production plants in the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia. Robert Sgariboldi, Panalpina’s country manager for the Czech Republic, called the facility “the largest warehouse project for Panalpina in Central and Eastern Europe in two decades.”

The facility will provide cross-docking and full-truck loading for the shuttle services to the automotive sites, with a capacity of 1,500 to 1,800 pallets per day. The new warehouse will be a part of Panalpina’s JDA warehouse management system and will operate continuously from Monday through Saturday every week.

In April, Panalpina showed its continuing M&A interest by purchasing CargoMaster S.A. in Colombia, and its Ecuadorian subsidiary, Laseair S.A., two of the largest companies in Latin America specializing in the airfreight export of perishables, consisting mostly of cut flowers for the United States. The forwarder also received its certification from Certisys for its Panalpina Adelantex subsidiary in Belgium in 2018 and also bought Argentine perishable logistics firm Newport Cargo S.A. that same year.