IKEA’s Med center to be built in Attica
One of the most important IKEA supply centers worldwide, that which will supply Eastern Mediterranean countries with the products of the Swedish giant, will start operating about a year from now, in Aspropyrgos, West Attica.
This center will be developed by a Greek company, Trade Estates of the Fourlis Group, which managed to prevail over three logistics giants in the international tender held by the Inter IKEA group. Kathimerini understands the Danish Maersk, the Chinese Cosco and the German-interest and Swiss-based Kuehne+Nagel also participated in the tender.
Notably, the construction of the supply center was sought by other countries, but in the end Greece prevailed.
The distribution center will be the property of Trade Estates, it will be designed and developed in collaboration with Ten Brinke Hellas, while the operational management will be carried out by Trade Logistics, of the Fourlis Group. The total investment amounts to 70 million euros (building facilities and mechanical equipment) and is planned to be included in the Recovery Fund and the Business Park (BMM) provisions of the Ministry of Development.
According to the investment plan, construction of the project will start in the second quarter of 2024 and is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2025. The size of the building in its initial phase will amount to 50,000 square meters and will have 55,000 modern pallet positions.
It is a new generation distribution center with an emphasis on sustainability, as all energy (100%) for its operation will be produced from renewable energy sources (mainly photovoltaics) with a zero-carbon footprint.
With the implementation of the project, 100 new permanent jobs will be created, of which 18 are for highly skilled personnel to staff the IT, logistics and artificial intelligence departments.
The center will initially serve the supply of IKEA stores in Bulgaria, Greece, Jordan, Israel and Cyprus, and at a later stage Egypt and possibly other countries.
This new investment was presented on Tuesday to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis by the chairman of the Fourlis Group, Vassilis Fourlis, and Andreas Colzani, category distribution manager of the Inter IKEA group.
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