Industrial warehouses are getting higher

Higher-height warehouses give tenants more space that allows them greater cubic capacity. That greater capacity translates into more pallets and more stock in a location of equal footprint, and that often means much improved service levels to the tenants and customers. In a very competitive world that is important.

In recent years, this need for increase in height has often been driven by the increased cost of property, smarter automation and storage systems, and the evolution of materials handling equipment to service pick and pack requirements in high warehouses. Higher warehouses are more expensive to build due to the requirement of floors to be reinforced to take heavier loads and be more even compared to lower height buildings. But even though the increased cost can translate to higher rents, a tenant’s ‘Cost per Pallet’ can be lower than a more traditional warehouse height building. This makes higher-height buildings very competitive for the right tenant.

Warehouse height growth overtime

Moving to higher clearance warehouses is not for everyone.

Companies may look to higher-height warehouses when:

• More cost-effective utilisation
  
  
• Improvements in packaging enabling more efficient storage
  
  
• Improvement in MHE abilities

Consolidating numerous facilities into a single facility

Pallet heights in relation to ridge heights