Global Tissue News

Essity sets up its global logistics center in Barcelona

The Swedish group established its center of excellence in the Catalan capital, to streamline and gain efficiency in the supply chain

Essity, a manufacturer of hygiene products and solutions with brands such as Tena, Colhogar and Velvet, has installed its logistics center in the Catalan capital, Barcelona, ​​with the objective of streamlining and gaining efficiency in the supply chain and in the company’s operations all around the world.

José Ramón Iracheta, director of the company in Spain, explained that the center, which will be located at the headquarters in Sant Joan Despí, will manage the marketing and coordination of the entire supply and distribution chain of the group, which includes 200 warehouses in 150 countries and the handling 3,000 trucks a day, with an annual budget of 1 billion euros. “Now the logistics are managed by teams in each factory, but centralizing it will provide a global view and more efficiency.”

Its logistics management already has 60 employees in this area and should reach 180 in 2024. “With the new work models, not everyone will be in Barcelona, ​​​​because they will be able to opt for teleworking”, commented Iracheta. “We chose Barcelona because, with its universities, there are good professionals, and it is an attractive city to bring them from abroad, either with new contracts or with Essity employees from other countries”.

Iracheta points out that the group already has an international logistics center in Puigpelat (Tarragona) and “it is their efficiency that allowed us to gain the group’s confidence to centralize logistics management here”. Furthermore, “Barcelona is becoming a point of reference in the global supply chain for many international companies and is a strategic point within the Mediterranean arc,” he added.

Although the company has not informed the contribution that the installation will require, Iracheta said that Essity invests 150 million euros a year in R&D, with a relevant part dedicated to digitization. The goal is to digitize distribution and make it more efficient, “which will also allow us to reduce our carbon footprint and improve service quality,” he says.

The center will hire economists, specialists in logistical planning, engineers and data scientists, who, in addition to managing logistics, will be in charge of managing information to forecast demand and organize manufacturing capacity.

With sales of €12 billion, Essity is the world’s second largest supplier of consumer paper products. Since its arrival in Spain in 1998, it has positioned itself as a supplier of products in the hygiene and health sector to large distribution networks, hotels, pharmacies or hospitals, through its various brands, including Tena, Colhogar, Demak’Up and Tork, as well as Jobst, Leukoplast, Libero, Libresse, Lotus, Nosotras, Regio, Saba, Tempo, Vinda and Zewa.

The products’ penetration in the Spanish domestic market has made Essity one of the main suppliers of large distribution networks in the country, such as Mercadona, for which it also manufactures tissue products under the Bosque Verde brand.

Source
La VanguardiaThe NBP
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