DHL's $35m Melbourne logistics hub officially opened

The facility is the latest in a series of upgrades in Australia and New Zealand, with the international logistics operator having opened new domestic hubs in Brisbane and Auckland recently and having started looking at a similar project in Sydney, DHL Global Forwarding South Pacific chief executive Tony Boll said.

Covering almost 50,000 square metres, the new facility includes two state-of-the-art coolrooms designed to handle life science and perishables exports.

"Australia has an excellent reputation as a global supplier of high quality fresh foods such as seafood, meat and fruit/vegetable products, many of which originate from the southern states," Mr Boll said.

"Meat products to Singapore and tuna and salmon to Japan are two of DHL’s largest perishable airfreight products.

"Beef exports to Southeast Asia and China also continue to grow and are up 28% this year on 2007 – the highest increase in five years.”

The lessons from DHL's experience with Australia's life sciences sector is now being rolled out internationally and networked.

"We have experienced 12% growth in Australia every year over the past four years and the new warehouse is a substantial investment in Victoria and Tasmania’s future," DHL Global Forwarding South Asia Pacific chief executive Amadou Diallo said.

"Infrastructure in the South Pacific, such as this new hub, also helps support DHL’s overall growth strategy for Asia.”

Mr Boll said the company had facilities of comparable size in China and Germany but not at the same level of technological and environmental sophistication and capability.