With an investment of 121 million euros, DHL Express France officially opened a new logistics hub at Lyon Saint-Exupéry Airport on 16 June 2025, marking forty years of presence at the site. It is the group’s first multifunctional centre in France capable of handling international, European, national and local shipments, both urgent and scheduled, with direct access to airport runways. Operations are expected to commence in summer 2025.
The strategic significance of the project is twofold: on one hand, the new facility enhances DHL’s operational capacity in one of the country’s most commercially dense regions; on the other, it represents a step forward in the group’s journey towards climate neutrality, featuring a structure designed to cut energy consumption by 55 percent compared to the previous site. The Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region accounts for over 20 percent of the volumes handled by DHL Express France, ranking second only to Île-de-France. Its geographic location, at the crossroads of trade flows from southern Europe (Italy, Spain, Portugal), the north (United Kingdom, Belgium, Netherlands) and central Europe (Switzerland, Austria, Germany), makes it a crucial hub in the continental logistics network.
Covering a surface area of 50,000 square metres, the facility has been designed to meet the evolution of freight flows over the next fifteen years, ensuring operational continuity and a reduced environmental footprint. The new site will be able to handle up to 17,500 parcels per hour, five times the capacity of the current centre, which currently processes an average of 38,000 parcels a day, with peaks of 60,000 during the Christmas period. The highly automated infrastructure reduces processing times by up to 60 minutes and improves working conditions thanks to less manual handling by staff.
Aiming to eliminate emissions by 2050, the new hub was built to DHL Group’s highest environmental standards. Energy efficiency has been boosted through a range of innovative solutions: 78 electric vehicle charging stations, low-consumption lighting, rapid-closing doors to limit heat loss, a white roof to reflect heat, rainwater recovery systems and intelligent consumption management. In addition to its operational functions, the site will also host commercial and support activities for the region. It will employ 400 people, more than half of DHL Express’s 750 staff in the area.
The Lyon site is the second largest infrastructure investment ever made by DHL Express in France, surpassed only by the centre opened in 2021 at Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport, which cost 170 million euros. Since 2018, investments in the country have exceeded 425 million euros. Philippe Prétat, CEO of DHL Express France, stated that “we wanted a site that reflected our commitment on three fronts: logistical efficiency, employee well-being and environmental sustainability. This centre brings together our full range of services, from local to international, from urgent shipments to scheduled deliveries.”
Mike Parra, CEO of DHL Express Europe, explained that “the data from our DHL Trade Atlas 2025 study, carried out in collaboration with the Stern School of Business at New York University, shows that following the recovery of global trade in 2024, growth is set to continue, even in an unstable geopolitical context. Sites like this are our tangible response to that scenario.”
