IN Brief:
- Bleckmann has opened a Roosendaal DC with AutoStore AS/RS and automated packing.
- The system uses up to seven times less space than conventional rack storage.
- The site strengthens dense, scalable fulfilment capacity for fashion and lifestyle logistics.
Bleckmann has opened a new distribution centre in Roosendaal, the Netherlands, combining AutoStore storage with automated packing technology to increase fulfilment density, reduce handling time, and support fashion and lifestyle customers through seasonal peaks.
The facility brings together an AutoStore automated storage and retrieval system, conveyor equipment, carton erectors, and autonomous packing. The configuration is designed to compress storage space, reduce manual travel, and improve order processing speed, with AutoStore systems capable of using significantly less space than conventional rack-based storage.
Roosendaal gives Bleckmann additional capacity in one of Europe’s most important logistics markets. The Netherlands remains a major gateway for fashion, consumer goods, e-commerce, and cross-border retail flows, supported by strong port, road, parcel, and airfreight connections. Demand for well-located, automation-ready space has remained resilient, even as logistics property investment has become more selective since the pandemic-era expansion phase.
The new site has been built around labour efficiency and later order cut-offs, two persistent pressure points in fashion logistics. Apparel and lifestyle fulfilment carries high SKU complexity, frequent returns, promotional spikes, and seasonal swings. Dense automated storage supports wider product ranges inside a smaller footprint, while automated packing reduces repetitive labour and brings more consistency to outbound processing.
Order processing speed also affects carrier injection times, warehouse shift planning, packaging consumption, returns turnaround, and the amount of buffer stock held inside the fulfilment network. A site that can scale during peaks without matching every volume increase with additional labour gives 3PLs greater control in a market where staffing remains expensive and difficult to forecast.
The project forms part of a wider shift in European warehousing. IN Supply recently covered Continental’s plan for an automated warehouse in Mount Vernon, a separate project but one built around the same operational logic: higher-density storage, fewer unnecessary touches, and more controlled material flow. IN Supply has also reported on Honeywell’s sale of its warehouse automation business to Advent International, as investment appetite remains strong around the systems behind warehouse productivity.
Automation is also being connected more closely to planning and execution. Consumer goods and manufacturing groups are increasingly linking warehouse systems with broader digital operating models. IN Supply’s recent coverage of P&G’s Supply Chain 3.0 rollout showed how automation, data, planning, and execution are being drawn into a single framework rather than treated as separate improvement projects.
Bleckmann’s Roosendaal deployment follows that direction. AutoStore can improve storage density, but the operational gain increases when retrieval, conveyor flow, carton formation, packing, labelling, carrier allocation, and inventory visibility work together. In fashion fulfilment, where returns and assortment churn can quickly erode efficiency, the physical system has to work with inventory rules and order orchestration rather than simply move bins faster.
The site also reflects a changing competitive model for 3PLs. Location and labour availability still count, but customers are increasingly buying resilience, peak capacity, integration capability, and returns performance. Automation gives providers a stronger offer where contract terms require flexibility and where retailers want fulfilment capacity without owning every warehouse asset directly.
Roosendaal adds another automated node to a region built around cross-border movement. As retailers continue to rationalise inventory, reduce lead times, and protect margins, dense fulfilment platforms are likely to become more common across European logistics. The pressure now sits in deployment quality: automation must cut complexity in the warehouse, rather than create a more expensive version of it.