Zalando to close highly automated online fulfillment center in Germany
The German online fashion retailer said activities at the Erfurt fulfilment site will end by September 2026.
Zalando has announced plans to close its highly automated fulfillment center in Erfurt, Germany, with operations scheduled to end by September 2026. The decision is part of a broader restructuring of the company’s European e-commerce logistics network.
The Erfurt site employs approximately 2,700 people, representing nearly one-sixth of Zalando’s workforce. In addition to the Erfurt closure, the company plans to discontinue operations at three other warehouses outside Germany.
Zalando stated that it will begin negotiations with labor unions immediately to determine options for affected employees, noting that the decision was made with significant consideration for the impact on its workforce.
Magazino deployed its largest robot fleet to date for Zalando, delivering 57 TORU mobile picking robots across logistics sites in Lahr, Erfurt, and Verona (Italy). The robots were designed to autonomously pick shoebox-sized items directly from inventory shelves, supporting sorting and packaging operations in multi-shift, high-throughput e-commerce environments. Following an initial pilot launched in 2018 and a successful rollout in Lahr, Zalando expanded the deployment to additional sites, with all robots delivered by September 2022 and full integration completed in early 2023. The system was positioned to provide continuous 24/7 operation, improved throughput, reduced picking errors, and the flexibility to rebalance robotic capacity across sites as demand evolved.
