Why Bijenkorf chooses Tilburg

Today Bijenkorf opened the doors of its distribution centre in Tilburg. Ingram Micro, HVBM Vastgoed and Bijenkorf organised this festive meeting, which was officially opened by Alderman Berend de Vries and Wim van de Donk, Commissioner of the King. 

De Bijenkorf department store group will supply seven department stores in the Netherlands from Tilburg. The distribution centre also carries out the e-fulfilming activities. Bijenkorf has outsourced these activities to logistics service provider Ingram Micro CLS Benelux. The sustainable DC of just over 31,000 square metres is expected to employ 300 to 400 people, at peak times more. 

Pieter Heij, Director of Multichannel de Bijenkorf: "We are proud to have a new distribution centre in which sustainability and the employee are central. It's a great place to work and to offer our customers the best possible service. For example, orders placed before 10 p.m. will be delivered free of charge the next working day. This is now done in an even more sustainable way."

"During this development we enjoyed working with Ingram Micro and De Bijenkorf. A compliment to our construction team and advisors for realising the most sustainable logistics building of the moment", says Adriaan Molenschot, director of HVBM Vastgoed.

Ingram Micro CLS Benelux has signed a long-term lease agreement with logistics real estate developer HVBM Vastgoed, which is developing the distribution centre on the Kraaiven industrial estate in the logistics hotspot in Tilburg. The logistics service provider has 41,553 square metres of warehouse space, 6,546 square metres of mezzanine and 3,233 square metres of office space at its disposal in the DC. From this building it is expected that more than 14,000,000 items will be shipped per year in 2020.

Tilburg, logistics hotspot

Bijenkorf moved because it needed a much more efficient distribution for both the shops and the customers of the webshop. The 43-year-old and outdated Bijenkorf store in Woerden (which supplied the stores) is closing down. Ingram Micro (initially still Docdata) in Waalwijk had been in charge of online processing for ten years. That branch was growing rapidly, but Bijenkorf has also been showing some pluses in its entirety for years. "On average 7 percent, and we expect it to continue," says Pieter Heij.

Why choose Tilburg? A nice piece of land, a good developer. That it would be this region was certain from the start. Partly because of the personnel that were already active in Waalwijk. We like the cooperation with Ingram Micro so much that we again have a contract for ten years for the complete operation in this building." The bond is so close that if necessary, employees in Waalwijk at bol.com (also served by Ingram Micro) will also be deployed. And vice versa.

Click here to watch the video in which Pieter Heij explains why the choice was made at Tilburg (and therefore Brabant). Or scroll down for the video.

BREEAM Outstanding distribution centre

HVBM Vastgoed in Tilburg built a building in the best chic white and relief. "It had to have something atmospheric," says Pieter. "That austere doesn't suit us." Another argument: the staff must be happy to work there. "The labour market is particularly tight in this region, everyone is fighting for personnel. It is becoming increasingly important to compete with your building. Daylight, large canteens with a view, plenty of space, a constant temperature." The logistics real estate developer and Ingram Micro have built a distribution centre that meets the BREEAM standard of Outstanding. By using heat pumps and a roof full of solar panels (17,000 m2), it supplies more electricity (enough for over 600 households) than it consumes. The sustainable and gas-free building has been custom developed (turnkey, ed.) and, according to HVBM, realised according to the highest standard in logistics real estate.

Achieving future-proof operations

The need for a new distribution centre arose at Ingram Micro (formerly Docdata, ed.) after the partnership with Bijenkorf was extended by 10 years. With the construction of the new distribution centre, a future-proof logistics operation will be realised.

Bijenkorf has department stores in 7 cities: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht, Amstelveen, Eindhoven and Maastricht. In addition, there are also webshops for the Netherlands and Belgium. By keeping a central stock in one distribution centre, the department store group claims to be realising a faster service for its customers.