Someone might think they are in an Amazon warehouse, but that is not the case. Robots have also ended up dominating books and do and undo what they want with them. In Penguin Random House's new central warehouse, a hundred machines climb shelves to find the titles that the bookstore requests when it doesn't have what the customer is looking for, but they also dodge operators when they are loaded with boxes full of best-selling novels. With mechanical noises in the background, the automatons move through a not-at-all romantic setting for those who advocate turning pages, but, after all, automating processes and reducing costs is the order of the day, also for the book industry.
The publishing group, one of the most important in Spain along with Planeta, has invested 36 million euros in the new facilities, located in Cerdanyola del Vallès. The developer Segro Spain has been in charge of building the complex. The logistics center has been built where the old Aiscondel factory used to be, where many residents of the city had worked. This was recalled by its mayor, Carles Cordón (PSC), who even had relatives who had been employees in this old plant dedicated to the manufacture of plastic products for stationery or decoration.
In less than two years, a 42,000 square meter warehouse has been erected, with the capacity to manage more than 40 million copies annually, which is equivalent to 160,000 books daily. All this, with the use of many robots, whether autonomous (they go their own way and carry boxes from one place to another) or collaborative (they try not to collide with other workers when they bring them books). The latter, as they are more friendly and interact minimally with the operators, have been named after characters like Mafalda and Miguelito, which means that, at some point, you hear a "watch out, Frida is going to run you over!". Once human obstacles, always more inefficient, are overcome, the packages loaded with books are closed and sent to destinations such as Catalonia, Valencia, Zaragoza or Madrid, where they arrive in one day by road. Those more remote Spanish bookstores have to wait a few more days.
Currently, with 75% of the warehouse surface occupied ---about 30,000 square meters---, the company expects to dispatch 135,000 copies and 8,500 packages daily this 2025. With a staff of 130 employees, the facility is operational 24 hours a day from Monday to Friday, with three shifts. In seasons of higher demand, such as Christmas and Sant Jordi, they can reach 340,000 books daily, also working on Saturdays and Sundays. Penguin Random House sales, integrated into the German Bertelsmann group, stand at 35 million books sold each year in Spain. The 25% of free surface in the facility ---about 12,000 square meters--- will allow them to grow in the future if needed and reach figures such as 40 million books sold each year. The company, led by Núria Cabutí from its central offices in Barcelona, is also open to managing orders from other publishers in the new logistics center.
Now, the number of books processed each day is somewhat lower, considering that part of its logistics operations continues to be carried out in Pallejà, which has been its central warehouse for all of Spain for twenty years. With the launch of Cerdanyola, Penguin will close the Pallejà facilities, clearly visible when driving on the A2 towards Barcelona. The Baix Llobregat plant, many years ago strategically located next to the Printer printing press, had become too small for the company for years and it has not been possible to expand its surface there, despite there being free plots very close by. To gain more capacity before having Cerdanyola, Penguin subcontracted part of the operation to Districenter centers, located in Sabadell and the Zona Franca of Barcelona, which will also be dispensed with. According to company sources, most of the workers from the Pallejà plant will join the staff of the new logistics center in Vallès.
But in the Cerdanyola warehouse, not everything is about preparing orders with the help of robots to send them to bookstores. Stock also needs to be stored. Specifically, 20 million books corresponding to the 24,000 references that make up the Penguin catalog, formed by about sixty imprints that publish in Spanish, Catalan, and Portuguese. The list is long, but some of them are Alfaguara, Bruguera, Debate, Debolsillo, Grijalbo, La Campana, La Magrana, Lumen, Plaza & Janés, Reservoir Books, Rosa dels Vents, or Salamandra. The publishing group works with about twenty printing houses, concentrated in Catalonia, Madrid, and Navarre, although some books are also produced in China. In Spain, the workforce stands at over 730 employees, with 80% located in Catalonia.