DHL Supply Chain, a division of shipping and logistics giant DHL, will permanently close its warehouse at 1613 Hutton Drive in Carrollton, according to a plant closure notice filed with the Texas Workforce Commission.
The facility, located in a sprawling industrial complex between Interstate 35 and President George Bush Turnpike that also hosts an Amazon warehouse, will shut its doors on Sept. 14. The closure will affect more than 100 employees, including 95 ground workers like forklift operators and hourly laborers as well as administrative staff, managers and supervisors, none of whom are represented by a union.
The company said in its TWC filing that it “anticipate[s] a majority of the associates will transition to a new employer assuming operational responsibility.”
DHL Supply Chain said in an email that the cause of the closure is “a customer decision to transition their business to a new provider” and that “the impacted employees will have an opportunity to be considered for employment with the new provider.” The company declined to reveal details about the customer switching providers away from DHL Supply Chain.
The company also said it is “commonplace” in the logistics industry for incoming providers to take on employees from outgoing providers.
DHL and its various branches represent one of the most prominent logistics companies in the world and in North Texas. Most recently, the company opened a 1.4 million square-foot warehouse in North Fort Worth in late 2022 and transitioned its distribution offices to a 220,000 square-foot, $57.5 million facility close to DFW Airport in June of this year, employing more than 150 workers. The company operates numerous other facilities in Garland, Dallas and Lancaster, including warehouses, smaller express service points and e-commerce locations.
Due to DHL Supply Chain’s ubiquity in D-FW, former Carrollton employees who want to stay with DHL “will have opportunities to do so,” the company said.
In part due to an increase in globalization and demand for e-commerce after the pandemic, shipping companies are a vital economic engine. American-based competitors to DHL like UPS and FedEx have reported huge gains in recent years, with the former netting $6.7 billion and the latter $4.3 billion in profits in 2023. DHL, which is based in Germany, reported more than 20 billion euros ($21.7 billion) in revenue in Q1 of 2024, with $1.4 billion in operating profit.
