The drugstore chain dm is building another distribution center in Upper Austria. In addition to the location in Enns, a second location is to be built in the Kronstorf industrial area by the beginning of 2027, as the company announced on Wednesday. 300 people will be employed there.
“The continued strong customer response from our customers is pushing our existing distribution center in Enns and the logistics in the dm Group Austria to the limits of their capabilities,” says dm Managing Director Stefan Heiglauer: “We no longer have any expansion options at the Enns location, and also Every modernization measure in the existing building is a challenge because every square meter is needed for ongoing operations.” Against this background, plans are being made to build a second distribution center in order to improve logistics capacities.
More on the topic
voestalpine sells German subsidiary Buderus Edelstahl
dm has contractually secured a plot of land in the dedicated commercial area of Kronstorf, with a direct connection to the high-level road network via the B309. Before the design and submission planning is completed, some open questions still need to be clarified, dm said. Nothing has yet been announced about the investment amount. According to reports, the amount is likely to be in the low three-digit million range.
“}”>
Several locations in Austria, but also in neighboring countries, were examined for the additional distribution center. “We prefer the Inkoba Kronstorf-Hargelsberg industrial area (intercommunal business settlement, ed.) at the Kronstorf location because we have short total distances from our suppliers and to our Austrian branches in the greater Enns area – this is just as important for efficiency and costs as it is for the overall ecological balance. Another crucial factor is the proximity to the existing Enns distribution center,” says Heiglauer.
The area in Kronstorf is the so-called Google site, which has now been vacant for 16 years. In 2008, the US internet company secured a 70-hectare piece of land to build a data center there. Then the company changed its plans. After Google failed to fulfill the contractually agreed construction obligation, the regional Inkoba association Kronstorf-Hargelsberg and the Upper Austrian location agency Business Upper Austria initiated the partial reversal of the sale. It was agreed that Google would keep 50 hectares and 20 hectares were bought back.
dm has now been found as an interested party for almost half of the said 20 hectares. There was a “building permit awarded with special conditions”. This ensures “the long-term influence of the public sector” in contrast to a sale, which is why the decisions for the settlement were made unanimously, say the mayors of Hargelsberg, Christoph Lichtenauer, and Kronstorf, Christian Kolarik.
Upper Austria’s Economics Councilor Markus Achleitner speaks of “very good news”. It is a “further building block in the successful implementation of the Upper Austrian lead location strategy”.
More than 220,000 people shop in one of the 382 dm branches in Austria every day, almost 15 percent more than two years ago, according to the company.
