The Growing Popularity of Warehousing Space – why and when you should consider it.
Over the past two years consumer behaviours have changed considerably. With cautions thrown up by the COVID-19 pandemic, priorities within logistics have altered. A healthy supply chain is now very much reliant on reliable, accessible and capable warehousing, and finding substantial warehousing capacity is a trend that is only set to increase throughout this year.
As retailers and logistics providers aim to keep up with consumer demand through stockpiling and combating further risk to operations, there has become an increased demand for warehousing space not only nationally but globally.
In fact a shortage of commercial warehousing has become the latest repercussion of the pandemic and shows no signs of slowing. According to The New York Times” Companies are grabbing warehouses with 50% more space than they need.” This increase in demand has only encouraged logistics companies to find more creative strategies for the storage and movement of goods.
The initial stockpiling which ensued following global shortages and delays, has given the logistics sector the wakeup call it needed to make changes in an effort to be more robust.
Why expand Warehousing Space?
In recent times, there has been a significant rise in online shopping, during the pandemic even more consumers turned to home deliveries, including those who had never used it before. Because of this shift, suppliers have identified a need for more storage space to facilitate this growth.
It has been shown that increasing storage capacity can contribute to greater productivity as the extra space enables a smoother operation and increased efficiency.
When to Expand?
As retailers add to their inventory in order to keep up with demands and buffer against outside risk, such as delays and supply issues, there is a very real need to increase distribution space. If you find you are struggling to keep up with customer demand or there are delays in your distribution operations it may be time to seek out larger warehousing space.
It would be wise to look for warehousing sooner rather than later, as pressure on ecommerce retailers and wholesalers increases it is making commercial space more desirable than ever.
Warehousing with Regional Express
The coronavirus pandemic has proved to be a turbulent time, however it has given pause for thought on how businesses are operating their storage solutions. In late 2021, Regional Express joined sister company, Delamode International Logistics, at their new 200,000 sq ft distribution centre located at Southampton container port. The new state of the art warehouse is designed to BREEAM Excellent Sustainability Standards and is primarily powered by renewable energy via a £2.5 million roof mounted solar panel installation, believed to be one of the largest in the UK.
The move to the warehouse has enabled Regional Express to increase pallet capacity whilst providing increased efficiencies in stock intake, order processing and speed to market, direct to the point of demand.
