The pandemic declared last week by the WHO has undoubtedly a crippling effect on businesses and poses major challenges and unexpected obstacles to supply chain management. Nevertheless, as always in such crisis situations, there are also companies that come out unscathed of them, even in a better condition and with innovative solutions. Will the coronavirus be a black swan for the Polish market and will it further accelerate the fast-growing e-commerce sector? An analysis by Damian Kołata, Associate, Industrial & Logistics Agency at Cushman & Wakefield.

In 2019, the Polish warehouse and industrial market witnessed a record supply amid an unwavering occupier demand despite the earlier fears of an economic slowdown, says real estate advisory firm Savills. Demand continues to be driven, among other factors, by e-commerce.

The development of e-commerce has a growing impact on the development of the industrial real estate sector. The origins can be found in the change of our shopping habits – the popularization of e-commerce has revolutionized logistics operations in warehouses, according to Adrian Semaan, Consultant at the Industrial and Logistics Agency at Cushman & Wakefield Poland.

Panattoni Europe has built a facility for Amazon in Gliwice of record-breaking size and functionality. The project, featuring in excess of 210,000 sqm and four storeys, is the company’s largest building in the country and has been fitted out with advanced Amazon Robotics technology.

DHL Express has leased a modern hall with a total area of 3 700 sqm at Brno’s airport. The construction, which should be completed in Q1 2020, will be carried out by Panattoni Europe.

New research from Cushman & Wakefield reveals the last link of the e-commerce supply chain can account for 50% or more of total supply chain spend.

Panattoni Europe has completed nearly 17,000 sqm of space for DHL Parcel Polska. It consists of two distribution centres dedicated to e-commerce operations, built in the Warsaw region – at Panattoni Park Pruszków III and in Radzymin. Both facilities have been developed in line with DHL’s GOGREEN policy and have undergone BREEAM environmental certification process, achieving a Good and Very Good rating.  

The first boxes with orders from a Polish clothing manufacturer have already set off from the warehouse just outside Bucharest. Thanks to the launch of the fulfilment centre with an area of 22,000 sqm LPP is now able to do deliveries to customers from South-Eastern Europe even the next day after the transaction. The warehouse will handle online orders for all five brands of LPP: Reserved, Cropp, House, Mohito, and Sinsay.

The retail sector has been heavily affected by the changes brought on by technology. Solutions such as indoor localization provide limitless opportunities for retailers wanting to stay ahead of the competition. Oren Rosen, Co-Founder of Israeli startup Infuse Location Ltd talked to Property Forum about the changing shopping experience.

Panattoni Europe has completed the construction of another facility for Amazon with more than 60,000 sqm of space. The logistics centre in Bolesławiec in Lower Silesia will receive products from sellers and suppliers, and then distribute them to Amazon’s e-commerce centres. The project was built in line with the guidelines for BREEAM certification and is already the seventh joint project between the two companies – in the space of five years the developer has delivered 745,500 sqm to the world’s largest online store.