Spanish clothing chain Inditex is not getting its distribution centre in Lelystad filled with employees from the region. The company has to bring in employees from home country Spain to fill the brand new premises.
So says Rob Verhoeff, director of Lelystad Airport Businesspark, which managed to convince Inditex to come to Lelystad in 2017. The parent company of such formulas as Zara and Bershka needs more than a thousand people for its 170,000-square-metre XXL distribution centre. It is going to get those workers in Spain. Indeed, Lelystad is experiencing a staff shortage, while youth unemployment is high in the southern European country.
The news is striking because the availability of sufficient staff was one of the reasons why Inditex chose Lelystad over a logistics hotspot like Limburg in 2017. That relaxed labour market is no more anno 2019; the city is facing a historically low unemployment rate. In the TV programme Over Flevoland Gesproken, Verhoeff makes a case for training enough staff. Only in this way can the region fulfil its potential as a logistics hub, Verhoeff said.
