Logistics in Hauts-de-France

The logistics industry is in the grip of rapid, fundamental change. Whether you’re a retailer or a logistics company, you face the same challenges, with mounting pressure to reduce delivery time, shrink your environmental impact, be more flexible and manage last-mile logistics. Find out how Hauts-de-France can help you meet the demands of today’s supply-chains.

Logistics in Hauts-de-France

The logistics industry is in the grip of rapid, fundamental change. Whether you’re a retailer or a logistics company, you face the same challenges, with mounting pressure to reduce delivery time, shrink your environmental impact, be more flexible and manage last-mile logistics. Find out how Hauts-de-France can help you meet the demands of today’s supply-chains.

Outreach of the hauts-de-France

Get direct access to your markets

Today’s consumption patterns present a new challenge: deliver in less than a week, and sometimes within 24 hours. If you’re in the logistics industry—a transport provider, a logistics company, a 3PL provider or a retailer with your own logistics operations—you know that you need to be in the heart of your market. In today’s industry, growing your business means finding the best location for your facility, from traditional warehouses to cross-docks.

Europe offers a few highly competitive locations with unparalleled geographic advantages. And Haut-de-France is one of them. Europe’s most densely populated region lies within a 300-km radius of Lille. When you locate here:

  • you’re in the heart of a pool of 78 million consumers
  • you have access to a market with €1.5 trillion in disposable income

Stay close to your customers and optimize your freight transport by putting your business in the heart of Europe’s leading consumer market.

Tap into a highly concentrated logistics ecosystem

Want proof that Hauts-de-France is home to a major logistics sector? Look at the concentration of players here—from generalists like DHL, UPS, and FedEx to specialists such as Conhexa, Transgourmet and DailyFresh.

Logistics companies in Hauts-de-France

Use our multimodal transport system

Roads

Road transport is still extremely popular with the logistics industry, and our outstanding highway system gives you direct access to major European corridors.

  • We have the densest highway network in France: our region accounts for 10% of the nation’s highways
  • 12 highways run through Hauts-de-France, at the center of a crossroads linking Paris, Brussels and London

Rail

Our rail network is equally impressive, and trains are a particularly good choice if you need to transport large quantities of freight over long distances.

Hauts-de-France:

  • accounts for 10% of the French rail network, or about 2,755 km of track (Source: SNCF Réseau)
  • has excellent connections to the European rail network

Ports

Hauts-de-France is home to domestic ports in Dunkerque, Calais and Boulogne-sur-Mer, and we’re the only region in France with easy access to Europe’s leading sea ports—Le Havre, Antwerp and Rotterdam.

And they’re all easy to reach, thanks to our infrastructure and logistics solutions. With so many maritime transport options, you’re sure to find the capacity you need to bring imports in and distribute exports anywhere in the world.

Waterways

The fast-growing green logistics sector is highly favorable to growth in inland waterway traffic. And with 1,035 km of navigable waterways, Hauts-de-France accounts for 10% of the nation’s navigable network and 19% of its broad-gauge network.

Development of the Seine-Nord Europe canal will link Le Havre to Dunkerque, maximizing trade and business opportunities.

Choose from a broad selection of available properties in Hauts-de-France

In 2019, our region saw particularly strong demand for land and buildings from the French logistics industry, accounting for 23% of the national total.

Hauts-de-France has some 13 million sq m of warehouse space, or 16% of available capacity in France. This includes:

  • 600,000 sq m of state-of-the-art warehouse space, available now or coming soon (building permit granted).
  • 67% of the available offer consists of Class-A warehouse space
  • 125,000 sq m in projects now underway in the Lille region
  • And we’re constantly adding new capacity: 115,000 sq m of new premises versus 122,000 sq m of existing stock in Lille in 2019 (Source: BNP Paribas)

Save with our competitive real estate costs!

Cost of a warehouse around 40,000 sq m in size, HQE, on land with a suitable surface and 9.5 m usable height (€/sq m/year)

Sources: EY / NFI 2020

8% below the average for our European competitors – €41-45 sq m/year, before taxes and expenses. Varies with location and level of service.1 (Source: Arthur Loyd)

1 Face rental value in Hauts-de-France at 1 January 2019 (Source: BNP Paribas Real Estate)

Annual rent for a greenfield site (cost in sq m/year, before taxes and expenses)

Sources: EY / NFI, 2016

Keep costs under control—choose Hauts-de-France

Qualified, available talent at competitive wages

Hauts-de-France is the youngest region in France, with 33% of the population under 25 and a pool of nearly 70,000 jobseekers in the logistics industry alone. (French National Job Center, 2019)

We’re home to many institutions of higher education and research that offer vocational training to meet your labor needs:

  • qualified technicians: UniLaSalle, Compiègne University of Technology (UTC), apprentice training centers and vocational schools
  • engineers: Arts et Métiers school of engineering, IMT Lille Douai graduate school of engineering
  • managers: SKEMA and EDHEC business schools, Lille University, Catholic University of Lille

 A sampling of salaries in Hauts-de-France:

Logistics operator Team leader Site manager
€21,540 €39,947 €97,172

Source: EY/NFI 2020

Euralogistic—a pillar of the industry in Hauts-de-France

Regional center of excellence sets the pace

Euralogistic shares and promotes its logistics expertise throughout Hauts-de-France, bringing businesses, training programs and researchers together to work on innovative projects that make a difference.

Euralogistic borders on a major highway, a canal and a European-class rail hub, and features four buildings, all managed by Euralogistic:

  • a logistics park with potential capacity of 600,000 sq m of Class-A warehouse space
  • Delta 3, a European transport hub served by rail, road and waterway
  • Euralogistic Campus, a business-oriented training and research center
  • a multimedia auditorium on a former industrial site, now classed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Together, these facilities support businesses and step up the pace of growth in the Hauts-de-France logistics industry.

Training

The Euralogistic Campus is the only facility of its kind in France. Its primary goals are to meet demand for qualified labor and promote future job profiles for the region’s logistics industry.

In all, this facility trains nearly 2,500 people a year, in programs ranging from vocational credentials to masters degrees. Euralogistic Campus gives participants the skills they need to become materials handlers, logistics technicians, team leaders and more, using a 5,000-sq m, 14-m clear-height Class-A training warehouse that teaches students to meet real-life challenges.