Jungheinrich is planning to build a new spare parts centre north of Hamburg to cope with its international expansion and the growth of its truck portfolio.

Work on constructing the spare parts centre, which will be based on a "new logistics concept", is scheduled to start in the northern autumn and is scheduled for completion by end of 2013.

The capital expenditure budget for the project totals EUR35 million (USD51.4 million).

Group board of management chairman Hans-Georg Frey says the investment will ensure Jungheinrich can ship parts 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. "[It] is an important asset in making our spare parts logistics even faster and more efficient. It is key to ensuring that our customers are satisfied and will lastingly strengthen our company's growth."

Jungheinrich's current spare parts logistics network is based on three warehouses - Norderstedt, Germany (since 1984), Lahr in southern Baden, Germany (since 2001) and Bratislava, Slovakia (since 2007). The warehouses' capacities are predicted to be exhausted by 2014. Jungheinrich says extensive fact-finding shows it is impossible to increase capacity at the existing sites to meet future demand.

The present spare parts warehouse and management in Norderstedt will be transferred to the new central spare parts centre. No information is available yet on what Jungheinrich will do with the Norderstedt site, but the relocation will affect about 230 employees, who will be given jobs at the new facility.