The global pandemic is just one of a multitude of factors that has caused significant supply chain disruption in recent years. From trade disputes to natural disasters, Brexit to the blocking of the Suez Canal in March, the importance of supply chain resilience has never been more apparent. As businesses look to reduce the vulnerability caused by disruption, we have seen an acceleration of the structural trends already in place that are expected to have a marked impact on warehousing location and space requirements.
This change has included diversifying routes to market, adding new layers of logistics and warehousing as they look to increase flexibility as well as resilience. In Europe we have seen a push towards multimodal freight but also nearshoring or reshoring production and moving from Just-in-Time to Just-in-Case, essentially holding more inventory closer to the end user.
With this profound logistics rethink underway, we wanted to take a closer look at how this “resilience through diversification” is taking place, both in Europe and around the world. In this report we investigate those future-proofing strategies, which include:
- The rise in multi-modal movement of goods globally and regionally
- The acceleration of near-shoring and re-shoring strategies
- The rise of Just-In-Case inventory management
Furthermore, we’ve taken a closer look at how these strategies have had an impact on warehouse space needs, helping to guide both occupier and investor attention as the sector continues to evolve.
