November 7, 2019
Jana Prokopcová
“Companies are approaching current market challenges proactively. Although they continue to carefully monitor their costs, they are also investing in new technologies and innovations to increase their productivity. They realize that putting in place effective processes can lead to long-term growth. Due to this, up to 57% of companies expect significant capital expenditures in the new year,” says Clare Sheils, Head of Industrial & Logistics, CBRE, and adds: “Almost three-quarters of respondents are planning to implement automated solutions or to begin with robotic automation in the next year, which will release approx. 9% of their employees during the next three years to reassign them to roles requiring higher skill levels and qualifications. A total of 64% of supply chain “decision-makers” want to establish sustainable approaches in their work organization (59% of them using cloud services) and almost one-half of respondents will implement so-called Big Data projects.”

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The demand for industrial real estate will continue to rise
A total of 61% of respondents from the logistics sector stated in the survey that they expect an increase in the demand for industrial parks during the next 12 months and 30% of respondents expect the same in the case of real estate intended for light industry production and retail warehouses. At the same time, it is more and more difficult to select a suitable location or, more precisely, companies encounter a lack of suitable land for construction. In addition to the locality, flexibility is then essential for our respondents – be it in terms of lease conditions or terms of temporary storage areas.
 
The crucial criterion for selection is mainly the location of the new premises, which is agreed by representatives of both manufacturing and logistics and retail companies. Other important attributes in the selection include the size, price, and length of the possible lease.

                                               industrial obr22

The current e-commerce trend continues to be on the increase
“A total of 73% of the participants in the survey stated that the growth of e-commerce influenced directly or indirectly their business. This brings challenges in the form of extending the range of services provided by logistics operators, as retailers and production companies are under pressure to increase the speed of deliveries towards their customers. They require delivery of a smaller volume of shipments more often. As a result, 44% of our respondents have noticed their partners’ growing interest in cooperation in the supply chain to satisfy the customer,” comments Clare Sheils, Head of Industrial & Logistics, CBRE.

RANKING OPERATIONAL CHALLENGES IN ECOMMERCE LOGISTICS:

  1. Recruiting labour resources
  2. Increasing speed of delivery (e.g. same day delivery)
  3. Providing extended service options (e.g. late night or Sunday deliveries
  4. Meeting requirements for urban logistics (e.g. sustainable solutions)
  5. Finding optimal locations for fulfilment operations

 

For further information download our report: Logistics and Supply Chain Confidence Index in 2019/2020 here.