MARS UK TO REMOVE ONE MILLION MILES A YEAR FROM ROADS WITH NEW £350M SUSTAINABLE LOGISTICS OPERATION

• The project will reduce Mars’ logistics carbon footprint in the UK by 16%
• Mars’ warehousing capacity will increase by over 50%

Mars has today announced a multi-year partnership with logistics leader DHL. The landmark project will see the construction of two state of the art warehousing facilities and the creation of a world class logistics operation.

The new sites, based in the Midlands and East London, represent an investment of £350m and have been designed with sustainability at front of mind. The project will deliver in excess of 12,000 tonnes of annual CO2 savings – the equivalent of boiling 25.8 million kettles – reducing Mars’ logistics carbon footprint in the UK by 16%. The buildings themselves will be partially solar powered and rated in the top 1% of non-domestic buildings in UK environmentally. 

Mars UK transport over 1.2 million pallets of their products every year – which, if you stack those pallets on top of each other, is the equivalent of shipping the height of Mount Everest every other day. The new logistics operation will remove 7.7% of current Mars transport from roads, equating to a million miles a year, or 8,547 times around the M25. All while increasing warehousing capacity by over 50%. Ensuring that Mars is well positioned to keep pace with increasing consumer demand and deliver their much-loved portfolio of products to future generations.

Tim Walker, Supply Chain Director at Mars UK said:

Jim Hartshorne, Managing Director, Retail & Consumer & Ireland, DHL Supply Chain said:

The two purpose-built depots, ‘East Midlands Gateway’ and ‘London Thames Gateway’, will be operational in the spring of 2022 and 2023 respectively. The sites will have a combined square footage of over a million feet and they will both have state of the art high bay facilities which include innovative automated pallet storage.