The ball is in the court: Alibaba has definitely chosen Liège, Belgium, as the location for its European distribution centre. A DC in the Netherlands is thus off the table for the time being.
This was confirmed by European top executive Terry von Bibra to De Tijd. The logistics site, near Liège Airport, will cover as much as 380,000 square metres. The construction and operation are expected to create hundreds of jobs.
Alibaba wants to expand and is therefore opening six distribution centres worldwide, including one in Europe. Earlier, the Netherlands was also mentioned as a contender for the European location, with Prime Minister Mark Rutte reportedly receiving a delegation from the company in August to discuss the possibilities in the municipality of Weert and Maastricht-Aachen airport. There, however, the Chinese e-commerce giant would be given substantially less space than in Liège, as space in the Netherlands is limited. The largest distribution centre currently being built in the Netherlands belongs to fashion group Inditex and has an area of 'only' 155,000 square metres. Netherlands does remain on as a contender for 'further expansion', Von Bibra said.
When construction of the Liège DC will start is still unknown.
