DHL Supply Chain has passed a key construction milestone on a new logistics center in Apolda, Thuringia, that will add nearly 27,000 square meters of warehouse space to its central German network when it opens in March 2027.

The contract logistics arm of Deutsche Post DHL is building the facility on a 64,700-square-meter site between Jena, Erfurt and Weimar — a location that puts it within reach of one of Germany's densest clusters of optical, semiconductor and high-tech manufacturing. More than 2,300 square meters of offices and employee facilities will sit alongside the warehouse space.

For shippers, the message is capacity. DHL is positioning the site to serve technology and industrial-sector customers across semiconductors, high-tech manufacturing, healthcare and battery technologies, and to deepen relationships with existing clients in the region — among them ZEISS, which operates around Jena.

Why is DHL investing in Thuringia now?

The Jena region has positioned itself as a hub for precision optics, photonics and semiconductor-adjacent industry, and DHL is betting that demand for dedicated contract-logistics capacity there will keep growing. The site also reserves room for future business, giving the operator flexibility to onboard new customers without another greenfield build.

Katrin Hölter, CEO of DHL Supply Chain Germany & Alps, framed the project as a targeted regional play rather than speculative development.

"With our new site in Apolda, we are making a targeted investment in the fast-growing Jena region, a leading center for technology and innovation and a region with strong potential for technological advancement and sustainable economic development," Hölter said at the milestone event, joined by Apolda's mayor, Olaf Müller, and business unit director Aiste Slabokaite Heid.

What does the facility look like?

The build reflects the specs now standard for premium European warehouse stock targeting industrial tenants:

• Photovoltaic panels on the roof
• Air-source heat pumps
• Energy storage systems
• Charging infrastructure for electric vehicles
• Structural provisions for future warehouse automation and digitalization

DHL is developing the building to Gold certification criteria of the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB) — a threshold increasingly demanded by corporate tenants with their own Scope 3 commitments.

The automation-ready design matters commercially. Semiconductor, healthcare and battery-sector clients typically require configurable space that can absorb robotics and digital inventory systems as volumes scale, and retrofitting older stock is often costlier than building it in from day one.

Jobs and ramp-up timeline

Operations begin in spring 2027, when DHL expects the site to employ between 50 and 70 people. Headcount is projected to reach approximately 100–120 by 2028, a ramp that signals DHL anticipates steady volume growth rather than a single anchor tenant filling the building on day one.

The labor plan also underlines the tight warehouse-employment market in regional Germany, where operators compete for staff near manufacturing clusters and often justify new sites partly on access to available workers.

What it means for the network

The Apolda center extends DHL Supply Chain's footprint in central Germany and adds dedicated capacity for industrial customers who would otherwise face a thin market for modern, certified warehouse space in the region. For forwarders and shippers running central German distribution, a new 27,000-square-meter facility at a Jena-Erfurt-Weimar midpoint adds a meaningful option for stock positioned against high-tech production lines.

With completion set for March 2027 and staffing planned to roughly double within the first full year of operation, DHL is signaling confidence that demand from technology and industrial supply chains in Thuringia will keep absorbing new capacity well beyond the opening date.