Amazon To Partner With DHL

Reports indicate that Amazon made a new logistics play that works to expands its delivery capabilities in the U.S. and abroad.

Amazon is reportedly partnering with the German logistics company DHL, said GeekWire, for one leveraging DHL’s facility at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport to build out its upcoming Prime Air cargo hub operation. The hub will accommodate Amazon’s growing fleet of Prime Air cargo planes and work to address the growing delivery demand from Prime customers.

The partnership also reportedly includes the introduction of AmazonFresh food deliveries in Germany starting next month. As per the reported terms of the partnership, DHL is to become exclusive supplier for AmazonFresh food deliveries in the nation of some 80 million. Handelsblatt reported that AmazonFresh delivery’s expansion would first hit Berlin starting next month.

Amazon estimates that the new cargo hub will create more than 2,000 jobs — part of its goal to create 100,000 full-time, full-benefit jobs in America during the course of the next year-and-a-half. It will also lessen Amazon’s dependence on traditional carriers, as both UPS and FedEx have large delivery hubs close to where Amazon plans to build its own.

On the AmazonFresh end, an expansion into Germany would be the latest move by the online retail giant striving for supremacy into the grocery space in the U.S. and abroad. Amazon is also seeking approval from India’s Trade Ministry to invest about $500 million in a grocery venture. Amazon’s latest move comes at a time when India’s government has eased restrictions on foreign retailers and deliveries, especially when it comes to local food products.

Stateside, AmazonFresh recently partnered with meal kit delivery service Marley Spoon to start delivering Martha Stewart’s meal kits. Amazon’s entry into the meal kit space could spell trouble for the startup operations — like Plated, Blue Apron and HelloFresh — that currently populate the meal kit space.