MILAN (Reuters) – Kering has completed the first phase of its new global logistics hub in North-West Italy, helping increase the French luxury group’s storage and speed up global deliveries.

The group will keep some warehouses in Switzerland but has already relocated several teams to Italy, Kering Managing Director Jean-Francois Palus told reporters on Thursday.

Kering said in a statement that it plans to increase staff numbers at the site in the Piedmont town of Trecate, which is operated by XPO Logistics, from more than 250 now to 900 by the end of 2022.

The hub will also be the first industrial complex in Italy to produce more energy than it consumes thanks to one of Europe’s largest rooftop solar systems, it added.

“The excess electricity will be fed into Italy’s power distribution grid, for use at Kering stores and corporate offices in the country,” the Gucci brand owner said.

Kering said the first part of the building has been operating since March 2020 and the second is scheduled to start by the end of the second quarter of this year.

(Reporting by Maria Pia Quaglia and Silvia Aloisi; Editing by Alexander Smith)