IN Brief:
- Søstrene Grene has opened a 45,000m² distribution centre at Prologis Park Venlo.
- The site is the retailer’s first distribution centre outside Denmark and supports European store growth.
- Solar power, all-electric design, automation-ready zones, and multimodal access shape the facility’s logistics model.
Søstrene Grene has opened a new distribution centre at Prologis Park Venlo in the Netherlands, creating its first logistics hub outside Denmark.
The facility covers approximately 45,000m² and will support the retailer’s growing European store network. It adds to Søstrene Grene’s existing 28,000m² distribution centre in Denmark and gives the company a central continental logistics platform close to the German border, the A67, rail connections, and inland shipping routes.
The Venlo site has been designed as an all-electric facility, with a 3.3MW rooftop solar installation. Around 0.7MW is intended for use by the building itself, while the remaining 2.6MW is expected to be supplied to the local grid. The facility is targeting BREEAM Excellent and WELL Gold certification, with design choices covering energy use, material selection, staff wellbeing, and long-term building performance.
Inside the building, the operation includes mezzanine space, wide-aisle pallet racking, wrapping and packaging areas, and dedicated zones prepared for further automation. The retailer has also included areas for online order handling and robotic picking, with an additional automation phase planned.
Venlo gives Søstrene Grene a stronger continental base as its store network expands across Europe. The location combines road access, proximity to Germany, inland barge links, and strong connections to the Port of Rotterdam, placing the site inside one of Europe’s most established logistics clusters.
Retail distribution networks tend to change as store density increases. A single national hub can support early expansion, but wider European growth places more pressure on transport distance, replenishment frequency, and cross-border flow. Additional regional capacity allows inventory to sit closer to demand while giving operators more choice when inbound routes are disrupted.
The facility’s specification also shows how logistics property is changing. Solar generation, all-electric operation, wellbeing standards, and certification targets have moved into mainstream warehouse design. Energy performance now shapes operating cost, emissions reporting, tenant demand, and future resilience.
Automation-ready zones are equally important. Retailers are building facilities that can absorb future technology without major structural redesign, allowing robotics, online order processing, and picking systems to be phased in as volume grows. That approach reduces the risk of over-investing on day one while preserving the option to scale productivity later.
Søstrene Grene’s Venlo hub brings together several themes now shaping European retail logistics: regionalised distribution, multimodal access, lower-carbon building design, and warehouse space prepared for automation. The result is a facility built for growth but not locked into a single operating model.
