<p>Marks and Spencer recently opened their mammoth distribution centre in Castle Donington, Leicestershire.<br />
The e-commerce HQ is big enough to house twelve jumbo jets or 3,500 double-decker buses and will be able to process up to one million items per day.</p>
<h2>Open for Business in Leicestershire</h2>
<p>The state of the art warehouse takes up an impressive 900 000square feet and has fully automated floor to ceiling shelving units, standing 25 feet tall.<br />
It’s a high tech labyrinth, complete with cranes, conveyor belts and complex computer systems.<br />
It’s also a tangible sign of new things to come for Marks and Spencer.<br />
The centre is good news for the economy as it will provide around 1,200 jobs, as part of the company’s attempts to streamline its online sales processes.<br />
The £200 million site is set to be part of M&;S’s plan to replace 110 smaller warehouses with three large ones – in an attempt to reduce distribution costs.<br />
According to <em>This Is Leicestershire</em>, another warehouse of 1million square feet has also been constructed in Bradford.<br />
Alan Stewart, M&;S chief finance officer told the paper that; “We are transforming our supply chain operations to make them fit for the future.<br />
We&#8217;re extremely proud of our Castle Donington operation; it&#8217;s among the best of its kind in the world.&#8221;<br />
The Daily Mail reports that the facility also features the largest solar wall in Europe which is used to help heat the building.<br />
Adding to the ‘green’ element is the facts that the entire warehouse is carbon neutral and was constructed using concrete from a nearby, former power station.</p>
<h2>Online Is Where It’s at</h2>
<p>Teams of workers in hi visibility clothing shipped the first online orders from the warehouse last week and are gearing up for a full scale operation in the coming weeks.<br />
The Independent reports that this mega facility is but a part of the company’s plans to drag itself into the 21st century; over the next six years Marks and Spencer will invest £1bn in its technology and supply chain.<br />
Eventually M&;S aims to scale down from the 110 distribution centres it currently operates from to just three;<br />
the Castle Donington warehouse, the one in Bradford and another centre in the south-east.<br />
Another part of the master plan is to move off of the Amazon platform the company currently sells through; creating its own instead.<br />
The current contract between M&;S and Amazon, which expires next year, has restricted it in terms of overseas sales and in terms of the functionality required to sell clothing.<br />
A key part of the new strategy will be to introduce next-day delivery along with the new online platform.<br />
Laura Wade-Gery, the head of e-commerce at M&;S, told the paper that; ““E-commerce has become the cuckoo in the business nest.<br />
It has outgrown our business infrastructure. Our delivery proposition and availability is not as good as customers would like.”<br />
As such the new e-commerce HQ is a vital element in Mark &; Spencer’s strategy for the coming years.<br />
Should it prove successful it seems certain that more people will be able to purchase a wider variety of the company’s products anywhere in the world.<br />
In the meantime the warehouse brings much needed jobs and activity into a sector that’s been hit hard by the current economic climate.</p>
<h5>Featured images:</h5>
<p><span class="license">License: Creative Commons</span><br />
<span class="source">image source</span><br />
Pippa Green is a London-based blogger who regularly writes about the construction industry and local, related businesses like Dickies UK.</p>

Marks & Spencer Open Mega Warehouse
