Page 23 - Logistics News April 2021
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Logistics Real Estate
THE GROWTH of real estate for logistics the need for new manufacturing and inventory
purposes accelerated during the COVID-19 models. “For retailers, if you don’t have the
pandemic, even though it had been a trend goods on hand, you’ve lost the sale,” she notes.
before the virus hit. The reason was rapid “The lesson learned from the pandemic is
expansion of the market for e-commerce, that the just-in-time supply-chain model isn’t
which requires three times as much fulfilment really built to handle these kinds of large-
space as that of brick-and-mortar retail selling. scale disruptions,” McLaughlin says. As a
E-commerce fulfilment centres need to be result, merchandisers are looking to gain more
close to the consumer because of the need control over their supply chains by getting their
for rapid delivery. That means locating them hands on their goods as soon as they enter the
increasingly within urban areas, where real country. Often that means finding ways around
estate is much more expensive. But the urban the severe congestion currently plaguing major
facilities tend to be smaller in size, working ports.
with the more traditional giant fulfilment Even as they pivot towards smaller fulfilment
centres located outside cities. centres in urban areas, retailers are looking to
In recent years, notes McLaughlin, supply make their operations more sustainable. By
chains have been prone to an increasing shipping from such locations to the ultimate
number of disruptions, which has raised customer, they can cut overall transportation
awareness by retailers and distributors of costs in half, McLaughlin says. •
April 2021 | Logistics News 21
