“There’s a growing gap between demand and supply in this market,” says Chandranath Dey, senior director and head of industrial consulting and supply chain consulting, JLL India. The consultancy projects that there will be 344 million sq ft of warehousing space in India by 2022, more than double the current capacity of 169 million sq ft, and triple the capacity that existed in 2015. Strong demand and increasing formalization of the space are also attracting big investments.
It might sound a little bit strange, but there is a huge search in demand for expanding the warehouse storage space in India. As we can see from the research of Jll India by 2022, almost 344 million square feet of warehouse space would be created, which is almost double the existing capacity. There are many reasons for such a surge in demand for expanding the warehouse’s spaces. With the introduction of GST, the business in India, or should we say the business environment in India has become more professional and organized. The policy changes have encouraged foreign investors to take a chance with Indian markets. Since more business ventures are coming in, they would surely need professionally built spaces to stock their inventories. Since the companies are running a modern age business, they would need a modern age logistics and warehousing solution. The old ways of warehousing are bound to be phased out and replaced by modern systems and techniques.
How are things looking now?
Being into the business of racking and shelving, we can very clearly see a trend taking place. Leave alone the small players of the market; let’s take the example of a brand like Amazon. In the past two years, Amazon has already opened 50 + fulfillment centers. These fulfillment centers are nothing but cutting edge large capacity warehouse which serves their customer base that too very efficiently. Since Amazon has taken the initiative, its competitors would not sleep over it. Very soon, we would see other E-Commerce players and associated industries also hunting for expanded warehouses space, which are tactically placed all over the strategic geographical locations.
This was just an example of one industry. The scene is looking very bright for other players also. Recently we have observed that even the sectors like pharmaceuticals and FMCG are ready to create more expanded warehouse space that provides operational efficiency. This really serves to beat the competition and to provide a prompt and ready supply of goods and services to their customers.
Companies like DHL and FedEx, which are purely into logical solutions, are going to be one of the biggest customers looking for cutting-edge warehouse logistics solutions. India is growing, and with this growth comes cut-throat competition that can only be tackled if proper service delivery is rendered that too quickly. One way to provide what the market demands is by having tactical warehouses that are modern and driven by technology. Let’s see what the future holds for the Indian markets. As of now, things are really looking great for everyone in India.