Category Archives: Warehousing

Sharing the challenges, John Thomas, Group Director, Realistic Realtors & Reach Promoters and Director at CIRIL (Commercial Real Estate Advisors), says, “The limitations of warehousing industry was and still is infrastructure; mostly an A-grade warehouse. Though it has improvised a lot; the share of A-grade warehouse would rather be approximately 40 per cent as of now and has increased by 20-25 per cent. The other limitation is the process of constructing and making an A-grade warehouse, from land cause to overall construction it includes various laws and implied approvals which take their own time and cost. We are growing and getting towards a more organised way of doing things and I am sure the government agency will definitely support this entire cause and make it more-friendly for developers.”

COVID-19 has changed e-commerce for the better and warehousing plays a very important role. Sharing his expectations from warehouse developers, Naveen Rawat, Director & Co-founder, Holisol Logistics, says, “On the e-commerce side, we are getting the requirement of being able to be as close to the customer as possible. Land cost is important, therefore, these large hubs have to be located on the outskirts of the city because firstly land would not be available in the city and secondly it would be costly to do that. While the e-commerce company wants to do a 90-minutes delivery promise to the customer, location has to be taken care of with small space within the city that has to be optimally managed. There is going to be a lot of demand of smaller fulfilment centres with some sort of automation to still be productive and efficient and being closer to the city. This is one area where we feel a lot of warehousing space is going to be required from within the city in addition to large big boxes Grade-A quality spaces which would be required on the outskirts of the city.”

With a plan to strengthen its local footprint in India over the next few years, Schenker India opened its largest warehousing hub in the country. The first phase of the warehouse spans over a space of 25,000 sq mts located in Badli, Gurgaon which is close to the KMP (Kundli Manesar Palwal) expressway and strategically located for effective and efficient supply chain management within NCR and North India. Vishal Sharma, CEO of Cluster India & Indian Sub-Continent, DB Schenker said, “It is a milestone development in the overall Contract Logistics strategy for the organisation after years of careful planning and preparation. It is also a strong testament to DB Schenker’s long term commitment to India as it is one of its most strategically important market in the global network and is projected to grow over 100% by 2025.” Equipped with digital technologies, this state-of-the-art warehouse is fully radio frequency-enabled, equipped with 100% consignment scanning feature, conveyor for operation movement, automated shutters, TAPA compliant & FM Global compliant fire prevention & suppression system, Green Building certified by GBCI under EDGE platform, and access control enabled doors among a slew of many other features

To meet demands of customers for re-export & long-term storage of bonded cargo at minimal logistics cost, Bangalore International Airport (BIAL) has opened India’s first on-Airport Public Bonded Warehouse. Operated by Cargo Service Center (CSC), the 10,000 sq ft warehouse facility will be under the jurisdiction of the City Commissionerate, Bengaluru Customs. This facility will reduce supply chain costs and facilitate trade at India’s IT hub and surrounding regions. The Public Bonded Warehouse will help re-export of goods, long-term storage of bonded cargo, assist in partial clearances and allow value-added services such as labeling, packing and repacking services. “At BIAL, our vision is to make BLR Airport a cargo hub, equipped with state-of-the-art infrastructure and cutting-edge technology to deliver efficient operations. In order to simplify processes and meet customer demands with the help of key stakeholders, including the Bengaluru Customs, BIAL has taken this step to set up India’s first on-campus Public Bonded Warehouse. This demonstrates BIAL’s commitment to support the Airport cargo community, as well as bolster the growth of BLR Airport as a cargo hub,” said Satyaki Raghunath, Chief Strategy & Development Officer, BIAL.

Talking about the importance of location while building a warehouse, Thomas highlights, “One can create a location hub and build an A-grade warehouse in order to seek good returns out of that. However, when any institution fund buys a land, the overall infrastructure surrounding it, the overall transportation facility and reachability of a particular place from across the region is very important. So, by location, unlike retail or residential, it means more of accessibility from each and every standpoint; entire logistics has to move around on a 24×7 basis. If that is served, the location can be made to the best benefit. And, for that matter A-grade warehouse is very important because even if the location is slightly off but if a developer tends to make an A-grade facility, it is still workable.”

Imperial Logistics has expanded its latest multi-user warehouse capacity, located in Werne, Germany, by 30 per cent with the leasing of a further adjacent unit. The additional space brings the total under-cover storage area to almost 30,000 sqm. The extra warehousing will be part-racked for pallets, while some of the new floor space will be left open for handling and storing of outsize goods. The facility now has a total of 25 truck doors, together with a large yard and parking area of 7000 sqm. which is ideal for manoeuvring large items. The complex also features container loading and unloading facilities, and incorporates a paperless order picking system. The expansion of the facility has been necessitated by organic business growth within the facility’s two launch customers, but some 50 per cent of the additional capacity created will be reserved for anticipated new clients. “Our multi-user warehousing concept is already facilitating major efficiencies for our two launch customers at the site, and is gaining considerable attention among other potential customers. We expect to fill the additional space quite quickly, and we still have the option to expand further,” says Christian Lohmann, Vice President Commercial Industrial at Imperial’s International business.

Strata, a tech-enabled fractional investment platform for premium commercial real estate (CRE), has raised Rs 140 crore from investors to buy three grade-A warehousing asset opportunities amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Situated in Hosur, Strata Avigna Warehousing I and II has received 100 per cent commitment from investors within just 42 days of its launch. The assets are expected to offer investors an average rental yield anywhere between 9.5 per cent and 10 per cent year-on-year. These three assets, to be owned fractionally by investors, collectively account for 0.7 million sq ft of warehousing space. “With global supply chains diversifying away from China to India, greater penetration of e-commerce, faster shift to 3PL, and companies eyeing higher inventory levels, we foresee an approximately 30 per cent growth in warehousing facilities in the coming years,” said Sudarshan Lodha, Founder, Strata.

Snapdeal has announced that it has added eight logistics centres to its network across manufacturing hubs, including Mathura, Noida and Mumbai, ahead of the festive season. The expansion is part of a decentralised network designed by Snapdeal, where its centres are located within commercial hubs inside a city to ensure faster pickup of packets from the sellers. The new centres are located inside the manufacturing hubs at Bahadurgarh, Yamuna Nagar (Haryana), Rajkot (Gujarat), Bhiwandi (Maharashtra), Agra, Noida, Mathura (Uttar Pradesh) and Mumbai. The expansion is a part of pre-Diwali increase in capacity to cater to the festive spike in volumes. These new centres will cater to manufacturers and sellers of decor and furnishing items like lights, curtains, bedsheets, kitchenware and apparel, including sarees and ethnic wear. All these items are expected to witness high festive sales volumes due to an increase in the number of Indians preferring to buy online for convenience and safety reasons

Considering Rudrapur as one of the largest industrial hubs of Uttrakhand and is a crucial location from supply chain & logistics perspective, Safexpress has announced the launch of its ultra-modern Logistics Park in Rudrapur. This state-of-the-art facility is strategically located on National Highway 109. The Logistics Park will serve as a nodal point for supply chain & logistics in the region. This facility is based at a strategic location and has strong connectivity with all Indian states. The Rudrapur Logistics Park enables loading & unloading of over 100 vehicles simultaneously, which ensures smooth and uninterrupted movement of goods. Operations at the Logistics Park are highly streamlined, which ensures the country’s fastest transit-time from Rudrapur to over 1,131 destinations across India.

Amit Malakar, Chief Customer Officer, Welspun One talks about the lessons to be learnt from the pandemic at CargoTalk’s fourth digital conclave. He says, “COVID-19 has taught us few things, such as, how important it is to be digital in our business, consumer’s direct connection to brand and having multiple stock points rather than one to fulfil the demand quicker, to name a few. We have realised that industry players with robust supply chains and those who were well stocked and well replenished were the ones who survived. Calling logistics industry an important contributor to our economy, he continues, “There has been a lot of talk about warehouse consolidation over the last five years and now the government is also keen and trying to reduce some cost of supply chain. The warehousing industry has also got infrastructure status. Hence, things are moving in the positive direction in this industry.”