DP World has launched its first Fast Moving Consumer Goods contract logistics operation in Italy, opening a 22,000 square metre temperature-controlled, multi-customer facility at Castel San Pietro Terme near Bologna.
The hub is designed to serve customers across the food and beverage industry, e-commerce and consumer goods sectors, combining warehousing, transport, e-commerce fulfilment and value-added logistics services to provide integrated end-to-end supply chain solutions for customers in Italy and across Europe.
The operation was established through a strategic partnership with Alce Nero, an Italian organic food company that serves as the site’s anchor customer.
Under the arrangement, DP World manages key elements of Alce Nero’s logistics operations including warehousing, e-commerce fulfilment and transportation.
The facility features temperature-controlled storage at 18 to 20 degrees Celsius, organic product handling capabilities and integrated logistics technology, with approximately 30,000 pallet positions and capacity to support additional customers beyond the anchor tenant. Its location near Bologna provides access to Italy’s domestic market and major European transport corridors.
Rainer Schmid, CCO of DP World Europe, described the Italian launch as an important milestone and characterised the Alce Nero partnership as exemplifying the company’s growth approach of starting with a specific customer need, building the right solution around it and creating capabilities that can subsequently serve other businesses in the market.
Renzo Patelli, General Manager of Alce Nero, described finding the right logistics partner as an important process given the complexity of the company’s business model spanning multiple supply chains, channels and customer requirements, and expressed confidence that the partnership will make logistics operations more efficient, flexible and responsive while allowing Alce Nero to focus on its core organic food business.
