Goodman develops XXL warehouse for Zalando in Germany

Logistics developer Goodman said that it has signed a 130,000 m2 development for Zalando in Germany, bringing its total pipeline for the ecommerce sector in Europe to over 1.5 million m2.

Since developing its first e-commerce logistics centre for Amazon in Leipzig, Germany, the industrial property group has profited from an ongoing boom in ecommerce in Europe, with the European Union emerging as the world's single largest market for the sector.

Since 2008, the industry has experienced between 12% and 18% growth across the EU and is expected to double its turnover in the next five years, in part due to the increase of omni-channel retail strategies by brick-and-mortar retailers.

'Logistics real estate has become a key strategic component of the ecommerce industry, having a major impact on customer service, margins and overall competitiveness,' said Philippe van der Beken, Goodman's managing director for Continental Europe. 'Many different building types are required by our ecommerce customers to cater for their diverse operational needs. Our success is based on our understanding of these needs and our track record of on-time delivery to enable the successful execution of our customers’ growth strategies.'

In 2015, Goodman completed 140,000 m2 of ecommerce logistics space for Cdiscount in France, Home24 and Ebay Enterprise in Germany and Alza.sk in Slovakia.