At a time when Indian Real Estate industry was facing difficulty, warehousing services emerged as a promising investment opportunity. Records state that the growth in Indian Warehouse stock began substantially. In 2017, the warehousing stock absorbed 138 mn sq. ft. area. It was 168 mn sq. ft. in 2018 and 211 mn sq. ft. in 2019.
But from the beginning of 2020, the industry recorded a slowdown due to the COVID-19 lockdown. Even the top warehousing companies in India have lowered down. This year, there was only one investment deal recorded worth $54 million in warehousing services in India.
But the situation is not how it appears to be. Warehousing services in India are likely to grow with new trends post-pandemic. One can expect that the warehousing sector will absorb a growth of 15%. The warehousing stock will grow to be 296 mn sq. ft. by the end of the year 2021. It will rise to 337 mn sq. ft. in 2022 and 379 mn sq. ft. in 2023.
Due to COVID-19, businesses are widely affected, and so are the warehousing services in India. Eventually, the demand for it is also increasing.
The need for Change in Warehousing Services in India Post 2020
Need for Multiple Warehouses
The current situation allows occupiers to think about their strategy and what better they can do. We can observe that the warehouses are mostly located at a single location. This period has proved this to be challenging. Post-pandemic, we might see multiple warehouses. It is far better to have many warehouses at different locations in times like this instead of a single large warehouse. In case any such situation appears in the future, they can still carry on their work through remote warehouses. This is quite a reason that will increase the demand for warehousing services in India.
2. Need to Stock-up
Most of the top warehousing companies in India follow the Just-In-Time (JIT) system. This helps in better management of the stock and reduction in transportation costs. But, due to the current situation, companies are facing disruption in the supply of products. After the pandemic, it is highly anticipated that companies will keep a higher stock than just JIT. This will increase the demand for warehousing services in India.
3. Need for E-commerce to deepen its roots
This lockdown, we have experienced the need to maintain social distancing. Many people fear to buy groceries or other items offline in such an environment. In the coming future, if any similar situation occurs, people will feel the need to buy daily essentials online. There is a need for companies to increase focus on this and to deepen e-commerce and home delivery services. The top warehousing companies in India have already started working to strengthen their e-commerce segment. The increase in e-commerce strategy will significantly increase the demand for warehousing services.
Alterations for Warehousing Services in India Post 2020
If you want your company to be among the top warehousing companies in India, this is surely going to help you.
1. The companies have to understand and focus on the health of people post 2020. Everyone should be well trained to function in the environment like COVID-19 pandemic. Rules must be strictly made and followed for everyone’s safety.
2. Depending on the product, it is necessary to maintain proper hygiene. Requirements like sanitization, masks, gloves, goggles, shoes, etc. must be all satisfied. A remote thermometer can also be used to check people’s temperature coming in and moving out.
3. The use of various applications for maintaining social distancing by tracking locations of delivery items and to control the flow of traffic to avoid crowding is a good option.
4. Delivery guys must follow hygiene methods and follow SOPs when entering the warehouse and leaving it.
You can observe that many top warehousing companies in India have already started implementing these changes. One of them is the Varuna Group. They already have multiple distributed warehouses. They take online orders and provide end-user delivery.
There are not many warehousing activities now, but we can conclude that in the coming future, warehousing companies will experience growth. They will come out with the potential to be one of the top warehousing companies in India!
