Viktor Kastelic, Managing Director of cargo-partner in Slovenia, explains the reasons for this decision: “Since the opening of the iLogistics Center, things have been moving very fast. We expected that it would take more than two years to fill up the capacity, so we were delighted that the warehouse was almost full after one year. The rapid growth of our business, the needs of our customers and the success of our operations in the existing facility have led us to begin planning the expansion, which was originally scheduled for the period 2024-2026, immediately.”

Construction to begin in 2022

The planning process for the construction of the additional warehouse capacities is already in full swing. The conceptual design was completed in March, and the procedures for obtaining the necessary approvals and preparing the construction project are currently underway. Construction is scheduled to begin in early 2022 and the official opening is planned for fall 2022.

The new facility, which will be built on 8,200 m² of land on the northern side of the existing complex, will offer an additional 14,100 m² of storage space on three floors. The wide- and narrow-aisle racking system will provide an additional 9,000 pallet slots and will be equipped with semi-automated high-rack storage technology.

Focus on e-commerce and drone runway

In addition to cross-dock, short-term and long-term storage areas, the new facility will also have a drone runway which can be used for parcel deliveries. Part of the facility will be dedicated to e-commerce services with a “drive-in” pick-up point for personal collection or return of parcels, available to the inhabitants of the northwestern region of Slovenia.

The building will be maintained at a temperature range of +15 to +25 °C, allowing for ambient storage, and will be equipped with thirteen loading docks to ensure an efficient flow of goods. The facility will also contain modern office spaces, some of which will be available for rent.

Additional investments into the existing facility

In order to meet the high demand for warehousing services at the iLogistics Center Ljubljana, cargo-partner has also decided to make additional investments into the existing facility. This includes a high-rack system with 2,500 pallet slots in the block storage area as well as a hybrid flow-rack system with 1,200 pallet slots. Flow racks allow pallets to move autonomously from the filling point to the pallet picking point, which will enable additional space optimization and faster manipulation.

Finally, to deal with the increased volume of e-commerce activities, a packaging plant will be set up on the premises of the warehouse, which will increase the daily parcel dispatch capacity by 200%. Combined, all planned expansions will increase the area of the iLogistics Center Ljubljana from its current 25,000 m² to a total of 39,100 m².