Smart warehouse facilitates cross-border e-commerce process

Słubice, a small town in western Poland near the German border, serves as an important land transport port in Europe, despite its population of less than 20,000.

In the industrial development zone, located in the eastern suburbs of Słubice, the warehouse of logistics firm M.B.B. Logistics buzzed with activity. With the assistance of robots, workers labeled and packed parcels. These parcels were subsequently transported to logistics vehicles on conveyor belts.

Within 24 hours, the parcels would reach consumers in Poland and Germany, and within 48 hours, consumers from other E.U. countries would receive their parcels.

Photo shows a smart warehouse of M.B.B. Logistics. (People's Daily/Li Zengwei)

Established in 2010, M.B.B. Logistics primarily offers first-mile and last-mile logistics services to major e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, eBay, and Allegro, Poland's largest e-commerce platform.

In the company's smart warehouse, with a total area of around 10,000 square meters, the tall and densely packed shelves were filled with a wide variety of goods. Between the shelves, more than a dozen storage robots shuttled back and forth along pre-planned routes, retrieving items from the shelves and delivering them to the packing stations. Workers swiftly unpacked, scanned, and labeled the goods, before placing them into distribution boxes.

"The warehouse started operating in 2019 and back then, it was the only overseas warehouse of China that employed high-end logistics robots. It provides a safer, faster and more efficient mode of operations, significantly improving logistics efficiency," said Gao Song, founder of the company, who added that the software and warehouse management system of the warehouse are all domestically developed.

Workers used to cover 15 to 20 kilometers in the warehouse each day and could only sort around 170 items per hour. Now, robots can sort 700 items per hour.

M.B.B. Logistics operates eight overseas warehouses in Słubice and surrounding areas, covering a total area of 160,000 square meters.

Each warehouse is like a miniature Yiwu, the world's largest wholesale market for small commodities in east China's Zhejiang Province, offering a diverse range of products such as electronics, mechanical parts, household goods, and hardware.

Gao said the quantity of goods received before the Spring Festival this year has significantly increased due to the improvement in China's e-commerce services. Previously, the average daily intake of goods from China before the Spring Festival was five standard containers, but this year it has exceeded seven.

Dorota Kowalska, HR Director of M.B.B. Logistics, proudly stated that the company's contributions to the local economy are among the highest.

M.B.B. Logistics currently employs over 350 people, with approximately half of them being locals and the other half from surrounding areas. In 2023 alone, the company paid over 12 million zlotys ($3 million) in various taxes to the local government.

After 14 years of development, M.B.B. Logistics has established itself in Poland and serves the European market. It offers various solutions for Chinese cross-border e-commerce and European local e-commerce companies. The company also provides value-added services such as local tax, legal, and labor consulting.

Rzepin, located near Słubice, is an important stop for China-Europe freight trains passing Poland. In 2022, M.B.B. Logistics constructed two warehouses here, covering a total area of approximately 60,000 square meters.

Sławomir Dudzis, mayor of Rzepin, warmly welcomed M.B.B. Logistics in an interview with People's Daily.

"The company's smart warehouses introduce modern warehousing management concepts to Poland and serve as a model for the intelligent transformation of warehousing services in Poland and Europe. By delivering professional and standardized logistics services to Chinese and Polish e-commerce platforms, M.B.B. Logistics has contributed to the economic development of Rzepin," he said.