Although the Industrial and Logistics property market is calming down, it’s definitely not going backwards. In recent weeks supermarket giant Lidl has announced its intention to recruit over 1,500 distribution centre workers, to support its continued store expansion across the country. It has also submitted plans for a new distribution centre in Leeds, which if approved would create a further 400 jobs.
Meanwhile another retailer, The Range, has started work on the largest warehouse development to be built in the UK this year: a new state-of-the-art 1.2million ft2 distribution unit located at Gateway 14, Suffolk’s new logistics park. It is expected to create around 1,650 jobs once complete in 12 months’ time.
According to an analysis of new ONS data by Indeed Flex, the online staffing platform, demand for UK warehouse workers has risen by 43% compared with pre-pandemic levels. However, the story isn’t simply about growth. Increasingly, the focus is on workforce – as well as customer – satisfaction, with occupiers seeking more specialised buildings.
This was borne out by a round-table discussion at a recent Property Week event that I chaired, where we talked about the role of the built environment in creating more diverse and equitable workspaces, and was further evidenced by warehouse visits I made to a couple of UKWA members: Movianto, whose new warehouse in Bedford has specialist storage for controlled drugs; and Active Ants’ first UK facility, which has been purpose built to optimise the automation of e-fulfilment.
Both warehouses offer beautiful working environments that will undoubtedly help those companies compete for labour resources. Alongside the use of robots to reduce the fatigue and boredom of repetitive tasks, sites like these boast great building design, making them a pleasant and attractive place to work.
At the first ever IWLEX event last month I spoke about the Rise & Rise of Warehousing, touching on some of the factors that influence where and how we’ll build the warehouses of the future, such as planning permission, freight routes, labour markets and electrical power. If you missed us at IWLEX, please do join UKWA at the forthcoming Multimodal exhibition later this month, where we will have our usual Pavilion and will be hosting a series of insightful seminars and panel discussions covering not only the future of warehousing, but also safety in the warehouse and the gender pay gap.
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