Hermes Fulfilment upgrades high-bay warehouse in Haldensleben: First of 61 stacker cranes lifted into place using a heavy-duty lifting system

Dec 06, 2025 Warehousing Ireland Case Study, Logistics, Materials Handling, News, Warehousing Comments Off on Hermes Fulfilment upgrades high-bay warehouse in Haldensleben: First of 61 stacker cranes lifted into place using a heavy-duty lifting system

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It was a precision operation: today, the first of a total of 61 new stacker cranes was installed in the high-bay warehouse at Hermes Fulfilment in Haldensleben, Germany, with the help of a 60-metre heavy-duty crane. The 27-metre-tall steel giant, weighing around twelve tonnes, was lifted into the building in two parts through a roof opening measuring roughly ten square metres. Hermes Fulfilment is investing a mid-double-digit million sum in this new technology. The phased replacement of the stacker cranes is scheduled for completion by the end of 2028.

The site has served as a key logistics hub for the Otto Group’s retail companies since 1994. The Haldensleben distribution centre specialises in handling small-volume items, including clothing and footwear. Using cutting-edge technology, robotics and AI, Hermes Fulfilment stores goods, packs parcels and bags containing items ordered online, handles shipping to more than 20 European countries, and restocks items customers choose to return.

The heart of the facility on Hamburger Straße is the high-bay warehouse. Its 27-metre-tall racks lining 61 narrow aisles have capacity for 1.2 million cartons of new stock. These are stored and retrieved fully automatically using stacker cranes. Much of this heavy-duty equipment, weighing several tonnes, is now 31 years old and has completed millions of journeys. The result: material fatigue. “The risk of failure is increasing. Electronic spare parts won’t be available for much longer. To ensure we can continue using the high-bay warehouse in the future, we’ve decided to completely replace the stacker cranes in nine construction phases. TÜV also recommended reinvestment following on-site inspections,” explains Barbara Schröder. She works in logistics planning at Hermes Fulfilment and is heading up the “Goliath 61” project, named after the scale and number of the new stacker cranes.

To date, 39 stacker cranes have been in use, switching aisles with the help of eight transfer shuttles. In future, each of the 61 aisles will be served by its own dedicated crane – eliminating the need for transfers. “That saves time,” says Barbara Schröder. In addition, the new stacker cranes from Swiss manufacturer Stöcklin will be significantly more agile and powerful. Weighing four tonnes less than their predecessors, they can travel through the racking aisles at speeds of up to four metres per second. Although the new cranes can carry only three cartons at a time instead of 15, the increased number of units, combined with their speed and weight advantages, will boost the high-bay warehouse’s performance from 3,500 to as many as 3,900 storage and retrieval operations per hour.

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