DPD has officially opened its £100 million parcels hub at Hinckley ready for the Black Friday and Christmas peak.

The hub is fitted with a 3,000 metre long automated sorter by Beumer, and is capable of sorting 720,000 parcels per night.

It was opened by Philippe Wahl, chairman and CEO of La Poste, DPD’s parent company. Gary Lineker, the Leicester-born footballer and television presenter was guest of honour.

DPD CEO Dwain McDonald said: “The superhub is way beyond anything else in the UK and gives us significant scope to expand in the next few years. We’ve been consistently investing in our network and growing our capacity for some time now to ensure we stay well ahead of the increasing demand for DPD’s services. We’ve also opened around 20 new depots in the UK in the last two years, half of them being brand new purpose-built developments. But Hinckley is the clearest signal yet of our intent.”

The building is close to junction 1 of the M69. It is 470 metres long and 40 metres wide with 264 loading dock doors. DPD expects the hub to create 1,000 jobs in Hinckley.