Marel breaks ground for a new global distribution center

At Marel, we are committed to strengthening our position as a trusted maintenance partner for all our customers. An essential part of being a trusted maintenance partner is our ability to deliver spare parts to our customers around the world – quickly and seamlessly. We are incredibly proud to have reached the important milestone of breaking ground for our new global distribution center for spare parts in Eindhoven.

An important investment

The new global distribution center is Marel’s most significant organic investment ever made. It will be a green, sustainable building with solar panels. It will be highly automated and digitalized and is designed to improve ergonomic conditions for employees and ensure a safe working environment.

Located at Park Forum in Eindhoven, the global distribution center will be close to some of our major logistics service providers, such as FedEx and DHL. The distribution center will become operational in 2024 and will shorten lead times to customers, improve scale and operational efficiency. The distribution center will mainly serve the region of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, but also our customers and stocking locations in other regions. One of these is the recently opened Buford spare parts distribution center in the US.

The Dutch construction company van Grunsven will be the main contractor of the global distribution center.

Taking the first sod to build the new GDC

On 8 September, we successfully held the groundbreaking ceremony in Eindhoven. Customized Marel shovels were specially made for this occasion using spare part scraps. Taking the first sod were:

• Ton van der Laan, Marel Board
• Ulrika Lindberg, EVP of Global Markets and Service, Marel
• Linda Jónsdóttir, COO, Marel
• Rob van Grunsven, Director, van Grunsven construction company

The groundbreaking event was well attended by Marel’s executive management, Marel employees related to the spare parts program, neighboring companies, the construction company, representatives of local universities, and representatives of the City of Eindhoven. At the event, the guests had the opportunity to use virtual reality to experience and see the new global distribution center. The event also offered an excellent opportunity to discuss the future outlook for the project with the project group and management.

Ulrika Lindberg, EVP of Global Markets and Service at Marel:

“Today is a big day for Marel and our customers. This state-of-the-art global distribution center will allow us to serve our customers with the full assortment of Marel spare parts while substantially shortening the lead times – something which our customers have asked for. We are bringing our spare parts business to the next level, and for all of us here at Marel, we are looking into a near future where we can proudly say that we are meeting our customers' expectations”.

Linda Jónsdóttir, COO of Marel:

“With the Q2 announcement, we clearly said that we are continuing to invest in our operational infrastructure to ensure that we can scale our operations to reflect current market realities and support the company's long-term profitability. The new global distribution center is an important part of positioning our business for future growth and meeting our customers' expectations in a scalable and sustainable way”.