Shimano Europe to outsource warehouse operations

Shimano Europe has announced its intention to completely outsource its warehouse operations, a move that could lead to the loss of up to 45 jobs at its location in Nunspeet, Netherlands.

“Shimano is making the strategic choice to fully focus on its core activities of sales, marketing and service,” said Marc van Rooij, President Shimano Europe Group.

The proposal is under consultation and Shimano is developing a social plan for those employees involved, which includes the provision of compensation, opportunities for new jobs and possible retraining.

The company is also looking for an alternative location in the Nunspeet region for Shimano Benelux and Shimano Europe employees.

“The company has grown enormously in recent years and the demand for our products is increasing every year,” said van Rooij. “The distribution centre in Nunspeet has almost outgrown its capacity.

“In order to be able to grow further and to be able to meet the continuously changing requirements of our customers, it is necessary that Shimano organises the logistics chain in a future-proof way. This requires the most modern processes, information systems and flexibility in logistics solutions.”

The Group’s Manager of Corporate Communications, Kim Edwards, said that a process has been started to select a possible logistics service provider to take over the warehouse and logistics activities.

“Shimano expects to make that choice in the coming months,” he explained. “The Group intends to sell the buildings on the Nunspeet location. We are looking for a suitable location in the Nunspeet region for the office employees of Shimano Benelux and Shimano Europe”.

The company is investigating the possible outsourcing of the warehouse in Poland, but says that its warehouse in Turkey is local distribution and is not part of this intention.

Depending on the implementation, the transition to the possible new service provider will take place in late summer of 2023 at the earliest. Until then, deliveries will continue through Shimano’s existing distribution centre in Nunspeet.

Shimano points out that customers want short delivery times and rapid product availability, and the optimisation of the logistics chain is aimed at optimising service levels.