The supermarket chain Consum will invest €100M in a logistics platform in Barcelona

BarcelonaThe Valencian supermarket cooperative Consum will invest 100 million euros in the construction of a new logistics platform in the city of Barcelona, as reported in a statement issued this Wednesday.

The group's new operational center will consist of 50,000 square meters and will be dedicated to fresh, refrigerated, and frozen products, with the aim of "strengthening logistics capacity in Catalonia," explained Javier Quiles, the company's director of external relations. The land is located in the Zona Franca of the Catalan capital.

Specifically, Consum has signed a lease agreement with the Zona Franca consortium and Vidrieria Rovira for the 80,000-square-meter plot that was previously occupied by the former bottle factory of the brewer Damm. The contract provides for the use of the land and buildings by the Valencian cooperative group for the next thirty years, extendable to fifty.

The supermarket chain plans to begin work adapting the space to the needs of the new platform at the end of next year, with the goal of starting operations there by the end of 2029. Between that year and 2034, Consum estimates it will create 150 new jobs, for which the current employees of Vidrieria Rovira will have priority.

Commitment to Catalonia

After the Valencian one, the Catalan market is the most important for Consum, according to the group's own executives. In fact, the announcement of this new center is part of the company's expansion plan in Catalonia, where it hopes to create about 300 new jobs –and thus surpass the barrier of 5,000 employees– and expand the store network with about twenty new stores between its own establishments and franchises. In this sense, with this lease for the creation of a new logistics park, the group based in Silla, in the Horta Sud of Valencia, seeks to "respond to the growing and consolidated network of cooperative stores" in Catalonia and guarantee "an increasingly efficient service" there.

With the one in the Zona Franca, Consum will increase to three the number of logistics platforms in the Barcelona region, one of which is in the same Zona Franca and a second in El Prat de Llobregat, with 42,000 and 11,800 square meters, respectively. With the entry into operation of the third logistics plant in 2029, the cooperative will almost double its supply capacity in the Barcelona metropolitan area, from where it also feeds the rest of the stores in Catalan territory. Besides this, the group has been working for years to obtain the permits to build a fourth logistics center in Montcada i Reixac (Vallès Occidental).

In addition to the platform in Barcelona, the Valencian group has also announced the opening of a platform in the province of Toledo that would allow it to improve logistics in Castilla-La Mancha and make the leap to the Community of Madrid.