An Post opens second e-commerce centre

Padraig Conlon 12 Nov 2020

Pic shows Garrett Bridgeman, Managing Director of An Post Mails & Parcels with the new ‘Beumer’ Packet Processor which will handle 100,000 items a day in action at the Dublin Mail Centre

AN POST has opened its second e-commerce processing centre in Dublin which is part its’ €30m investment in the country’s largest e-commerce campus.

The centre is located at the Dublin Mails Centre in Dublin 12 and is beside its’ new automated Dublin Parcel Hub which opened last November.

According to An Post the new campus is handling 2.5 million parcels each week.

It said the type of smaller parcel handled by the new centre, padded envelopes and smaller boxed items, is growing really quickly in terms of both outgoing volumes from Irish companies selling worldwide and incoming online shopping from all over the globe.

Over €30m has been invested by An Post in the campus, which it said will provide world class national infrastructure for Irish businesses trading in Ireland or internationally.

Garrett Bridgeman (pictured above) Managing Director of An Post Mails and Parcels, said:

“We are investing in the re-orientation of our whole business from the old world of traditional letters to new world of e-commerce parcels.

“We have been preparing and significantly investing in our technology and infrastructure capability all year to support businesses post Brexit on 1 January.

“We will be able to manage the changes that Brexit will bring for businesses and consumers in a seamless way.

Construction of the new processing machinery began earlier this year with full ‘go-live’ in November, in good time for the 2020 Christmas peak period.

Bridgeman says the new parcel centre opened just in time for the traditional Christmas rush.

“We have been asking customers to bear with us.

“The largest delivery team in the country, using the very best technology, is working hard to make sure that mail and parcels are delivered.”

Staff currently working in the manual sorting of small parcels have been re-trained to support the new ‘Beumer’ Packet Processor which will handle 100,000 items a day.

Like its Beumer big brother next door, the new self-learning technology is purpose designed and can recognise Irish locations, eircodes and Irish language addresses, and can cope with a variety of sizes and formats.