DHL Exel has revealed plans to expand its Europe, Middle East and Africa operations by more than 60% over the next five years

The world’s largest supply chain provider opened this years’ Sheds conference in Newport, Wales by declaring a company target of occupying more than 50m sq ft (5m sq m) of distribution space across EMEA over the next five years.

Speaking at Sheds, Michael Samuels, strategy and business planning director at DHL Exel said the company would decide on individual country requirements by the third quarter this year before selecting partners to develop its properties.

He said: ‘We must assess what we have in our current portfolio, understand what we have, then establish a 2011 vision for property and work out how we will get there.’

Samuels also said the company would create a property model for sub-sectors within the goods market, moving away from finding bespoke properties for its customers.

He said the company will shift its requirements from more ‘costly and time-consuming bespoke solutions’ to ‘standardised property solutions.’ He said the shift was customer-led.