Logistically speaking
The latest report issued by agents King Sturge on the Warsaw warehouse market states that logistics companies and international consortia occupy two thirds of warehouse space in Poland. According to specialist warehousing magazine Eurologistics, the main tenants of modern warehouses in Poland are logistics companies. Do warehouses occupied by logistics companies differ from other warehouses?
Logistics space
FM Logistic has been operating in Poland since 1994. A year after it
started the company built a warehouse in Mszczonów, c. 45 km from Warsaw
on the Katowice route. With 60,000 sqm this was the biggest high storage
warehouse in Poland. The warehouse halls can be adapted to suit tenants
requirements who include Procter & Gamble, Mars, Kodak, Auchan and
Carrefour. An interesting point about this project is that a specialised
arm of FM Logistic developed it. "We knew the requirements which had to
be met. The cost of a warehouse used by a logistics company does not
vary from the cost of a warehouse built for an end user. The
technologies are identical, the only difference is that a hall catering
to a logistics user must be flexible so that its interior can be
modified without difficulty," says Wojciech Gąsiorowski, sales director
at FM Logistic.
Other schemes
Adjacent to FM Logistic's project is Europa Distribution Center's (EDC)
Europa Park. Tenants at this development, located on a 133 hectare site,
include Maersk who have a 22,000 sqm facility (which they plan to
increase to 40,000 sqm) and Fiege Goth, who have 16,000 sqm of space
(which they are also planning to enlarge to 40,000 sqm). Both these
companies have owned the land on which their warehouses are built since
1999. Maersk built its own facility while Fiege Goth's investment was
overseen by EDC.
"Warehouses to be utilised by logistics firms must have flexible designs
so they can be divided into partitions as well as have various types of
racks and equipment installed and new amenities added. The fulfilment of
these criteria makes these facilities more expensive to build than for
an end user," explains Paweł Piasecki of EDC. "From the point of view of
warehouse management it is more convenient for end users to own their
facilities."
Similar standards
Several logistics companies lease space at ProLogis' warehouse
complexes. Tenants at ProLogis Park Teresin include logistics companies
Distriland and Danzas; tenants at ProLogis Park Błonie include Bruhn
Transport and Polta. These companies took space in these facilities
after they were built and had no influence on their design. "I disagree
with the opinion that warehouses built for logistics companies should be
different from warehouses built for end users. Either type of tenant can
use each any facility. Logistics companies need a greater number of
gates, but end users don't have to use them," says Maciej Madejak of
ProLogis.
At TKG International's complexes, Ożarów Business Center and Warsaw
Distribution Center, logistics companies, Lognet in Ożarów and Prolog in
Warsaw took smaller areas of c. 2,000 sqm each. Both companies took
space when the facilities were already complete and had no say in the
design.
