DHL to deploy 1,000+ additional robots across UK operations

DHL Supply Chain announced an investment of £550 million (€637 million) to expand its infrastructure and accelerate the rollout of automation across its customer operations in U.K. and Ireland, to support growing demand in the e-commerce and life sciences healthcare sectors.

"The new investment builds on the €1 billion already spent on automation by DHL Supply Chain over the last three years with more than 3,200 digitalisation projects deployed across the U.K. & Ireland and EMEA. Until 2030, DHL's contract logistics business plans to significantly increase its scale in UK&I as well as globally, with automation, robotics and digitalisation being a key enabler of this growth," says an official release.

Saul Resnick, CEO, DHL Supply Chain UK & Ireland says: "Our investment reflects the growing opportunities across the U.K. market. Customers are increasingly recognising the benefits of digitalisation, and, to date this year, we've already surpassed the number of deployments achieved last year. What's more, the integration of robotics and automation in customer operations is becoming more sophisticated, so customers are seeing greater benefits and faster ROI.

"This momentum is only possible with the right infrastructure and expertise in place, tailored to support high-growth industries like e-commerce and healthcare. That's why we're investing for long-term impact, ensuring we are the go-to supply chain provider. The UK's new trade strategy reinforces this direction by supporting fast-growing sectors and enhancing access to global markets - priorities that closely align with our investment focus and customer needs."

DHL is intensifying its commitment to go beyond classical vendor relationships to emphasise co-developing, testing, and scaling robotics solutions with leading innovators, the release added. "This strategy has already resulted in more than 2,000 robots working collaboratively alongside our associates in the U.K., Ireland and EMEA region. More than 750 assisted picking robots from Locus Robotics and 6 River Systems are live across 18 sites in the region, and DHL recently deployed the first Boston Dynamics Stretch Robot for container unloading in the U.K. The Stretch robots have the ability to unload up to 700 boxes per hour, significantly reducing physical strain on warehouse colleagues and enhancing productivity in fast turnaround environments such as e-commerce."

Tim Tetzlaff, Global Head of Digital Transformation, DHL Supply Chain says: "At DHL, we're driving the next wave of automation, not as a one-size-fits-all approach but as a set of intelligent, adaptive technologies tailored to the specific needs of individual sectors. For e-commerce, for example, where the market is evolving and demand is growing, we're expanding our fulfilment capabilities to support that shift with automated solutions that significantly simplify high-volume operations. Meanwhile, in the growing life sciences sector, we're leveraging automation to respond faster to demand and manage complexity at scale with end-to-end visibility, amid a larger focus on patient-centric approaches and differentiated routes to market."