The storage area of the first phase of the fulfillment center covers 52,000 square meters, with plans to extend up to 76,000 square meters by the end of 2023. Once all phases have been launched, the total area of the logistics hub will amount to 135,000 sq.m. It is planned to expand the area to meet the growing volumes of online trading in the region; in the first half of 2022 alone, the number of orders on Ozon in Samara Region increased by 2.4 times year on year.
Ozon’s own investments in opening both phases of the fulfillment center amounted to around 5 billion rubles. The majority of the funds were spent on purchasing high-tech equipment and creating in-house IT systems for automating production.
The new fulfillment center is already capable of processing over 215,000 orders each day, enabling next-day delivery to residents of Samara and neighboring regions. After the launch of the second phase, the number of processed orders will reach 700,000. Both phases of the center will have a combined storage capacity of more than 40 million goods, so residents will have access to a wide range of products, from consumer goods, books and clothes to large household appliances, automotive products and building and renovation products.
“The project was implemented in a very short time frame,” emphasizes Dmitry Azarov, governor of the Samara region. “The agreement was only signed last year at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, which is the main economic forum in our country, and now, in 2022, we are already opening this logistics center.
A huge amount of team work was involved; we worked with colleagues from the federal government and quick decisions were made to supplement the activity types in the Chapaevsk Priority Social and Economic Development Area. I would like to thank the management team at Ozon for their cooperation, as well as the construction workers who carried out the work in such a short space of time.
Initially, Ozon planned to locate the center in a different area of Volga region. We successfully established the necessary conditions and talked about the advantages. I am sure that this decision was the right one, and there is no doubt that Ozon will see this for itself. Just as during the project preparation stage, we are ready to work together further down the line.
The opening of the center means an investment in our region and our land, and it also represents a unique opportunity for entrepreneurs from Samara to enter both the Russian and global markets. Of course, this also means new jobs will be created, in this case around 6,000.”
“We continue to develop our network of fulfillment centers, which already covers 14 major regions around Russia and Belarus,” says Alexander Gehl, CEO of Ozon Fulfillment. “Opening such a large complex will be another step towards supporting local businesses in the Volga region, including both self-employed workers and small- and medium-size enterprises. Sellers will no longer need to spend money on interregional deliveries to centralized warehouses, delivery times will be significantly reduced and product availability will increase, meaning that the sales process on the marketplace will become simpler and more profitable. For locals, having this major logistics hub “next door” will mean quick deliveries of millions of types of goods.”
Aside from the obvious advantages for the region’s residents, the fulfillment center plays an important role for local entrepreneurs. In the first six months of the year, more than 3,700 entrepreneurs from Samara Region sold goods on Ozon. First and foremost, the fulfillment center will allow local entrepreneurs to supply their goods more quickly via the marketplace and save on logistics costs. The goods stored at Ozon’s hub in Samara will be sold around the world, meaning that local sellers will get the opportunity to scale up their business.
In addition, the presence of such a facility in the region will help boost the development of “last mile” infrastructure and delivery services. At present, Ozon’s logistics infrastructure in Samara Region includes not only the fulfillment center, but also a sorting center and more than 400 branded pickup points, which are managed by our partner entrepreneurs.
The model of the marketplace contributes to the formation and development of the accompanying ecosystem of service and training companies, as well as logistics and courier services, which has a positive effect on the local economy and creates new jobs. With the Ozon fulfillment center alone, around 1,000 jobs will be created in Samara Region by the end of 2022. This number will increase to 2,200 by the end of 2023, and then again to 6,000 once the center reaches full capacity.