A new report produced by Savills, and commissioned by United Kingdom Warehousing Association (UKWA), has highlighted the growth in the UK warehousing sector and the seismic shifts in occupier profile over the course of the last six years.
In 2015, High Street retailers were the dominant occupiers of UK warehousing units, however over the last six years this trend has shifted, with Third-Party Logistics (3PL) business now the leading occupiers with increased occupation levels of 42%.
Another industry with increased warehousing occupancy are online retailers, who have increased by an astonishing 614% from 2015 to 2021.
This growth in warehousing take-up has no doubt been accelerated by the rapid growth in online retail throughout the duration of the COVID 19 pandemic, as we highlighted in one of our previous posts.
The Head of Industrial & Logistics Research at Savills, Kevin Mofid, stated “It comes as no surprise that we have seen a considerable increase in the amount of space occupied by online retailers, 3PLs and parcel delivery operators in the past six years.
Whilst the shift to online has been talked about for years, these figures exemplify what a significant impact it has had on the make up of the UK warehouse market in a relatively short space of time.”
The report shows the record-breaking levels of warehouse take-up during the period between 2015 and 2021, with warehouse space now covering 566 million sq ft and vacancy rates at just 5.4% compared to 7.4% in 2015.
Download the full report to discover more of the data and insights in relation to the size and make up of the UK warehousing sector.
About the Report
The report, titled ‘The size and make up of the UK warehouse sector’, was first published by UKWA in 2015, following research by Savills to create a comprehensive database of all existing warehouse units in Great Britain over 100,000 sq ft.
About Savills
Founded in the UK in 1855, Savills is one of the world’s leading property agents providing best-in-class advice as they help individuals, businesses and institutions make better property decisions
Find out more: https://www.savills.co.uk/
About United Kingdom Warehousing Association (UKWA)
UKWA provides a voice for the logistics industry and helps members to operate safely, ethically and profitably, safeguarding industry standards and ensuring members’ views are represented clearly and effectively to government.
Find out more: https://www.ukwa.org.uk/