Hermes to build largest warehouse in Europe in South Yorkshire - creating 1,300 new jobs

The German firm is spending £60m on an automated distribution hub named Colossus in Hoyland near Junction 36 of the M1. It will process a whopping 1.3m parcels every day for customers including Next, John Lewis, and clothing giant ASOS, which has a huge warehouse in Barnsley.

Chief executive, Martijn de Lange, said: “The online shopping boom shows no sign of slowing down and we have just experienced our biggest Christmas period to date, handling in excess of 49.1 million parcels during December alone – significantly up from 39.5 million in December 2018.

“Our continued investment to strengthen our network and infrastructure across the UK is laying the foundations for future growth, creating more employment opportunities and confirming our position as an industry leader.”

The new site is set to open in 2022. Some 800 people will work there on shifts. To prepare for expected growth, further tiers will be added to the hub in coming years.

Its position near the M1 allows for later cut off times for collections, bosses say.

Meanwhile, further investment across Hermes’ network is also being planned including investment at the firm’s Nottingham and EuroCentral depots this year, adding automation and capacity to process an additional 280,000 parcels to the network annually.

In Sheffield, clothing company PrettyLittleThing opened a giant warehouse in Darnall in 2018 employing more than 1,000.