Books by well-known writers such as Ester Tusquets, Josep Maria Espinàs, Montserrat Roig, Gabriel García Márquez or the recently deceased Ibáñez with his Mortadelo and Filemón have been lying buried since yesterday in a kind of time capsule that has served as the first stone of the great center of logistics distribution with which the Penguin Random House publishing house wants to strengthen its business leadership in Europe. A first stone that was placed yesterday symbolically to begin a work in which 36 million euros will be invested, 16 of which in technology and robotics. The “smart” warehouse will be located in Cerdanyola del Vallès, on 42,000 m2 of land formerly occupied by the Aiscondel plastics factory, from where up to 35 million books per year can be distributed, that is, an average of 130,000 books per day.
As explained yesterday by the CEO of the publishing group, Nuria Cabutí, the urban planning operation will allow us to be more competitive and productive”, since it will unify all the logistical activity that Penguin Random House has today in five centers spread throughout the metropolitan area of Barcelona, ??mainly in Pallejà. These will cease to be operational from the beginning of 2025, when the new Cerdanyola logistics center is expected to come into operation, a warehouse that will directly employ 350 people and another 1,000 indirectly.
The construction of the Penguin distribution center is being carried out by the real estate services company Segro Spain, specialized in the construction of automated and technological warehouses. Precisely this was one of the most highlighted aspects during yesterday’s presentation of the project, as well as the environmental and sustainability aspects of the work and the distribution center.
The forecast is that Segro will deliver the work in the second half of 2024 and that the robotization of these facilities will then begin, whose objective is to “provide a better service,” according to Cabutí. The Cerdanyola center will house the more than 20,000 active titles of the group’s 44 Spanish and Catalan publishing labels, such as Alfaguara, Debate, La Campana or Plaza
