Cloud kitchens, new quick-commerce companies and traditional tenants are racing for space in the Industrial and Logistics sectors with both brownfield and green sites in demand.
Delays in leasing and planning processes are holding back the UK sector according to tenants in the market including Deliveroo, Getir, Travis Perkins and DHL who shared their views at the Industrial and Logistics Conference held by Property Week in London Syon Park in May.
The panellists discussed the long legal process and documentation needed for leasing space in the UK, which was detrimental to their business – landlords not engaging was another issue. Travis Perkins is keen to look at reducing the carbon of its transport fleet but is getting frustrated trying to get landlords engaged.
Nick Pinney, group property director for Travis Perkins said, “We have one of the biggest transport fleets in the country. We are looking at ways we can decarbonise and one of these ways is starting to use vegetable oil and HVA. They’re relatively small tanks, tried and tested technology, that don’t really interfere with the yard too much and we wanted to roll out a trial quickly to see what the learnings were and how it all impacted. But again, we’ve been really frustrated at how difficult it’s been to get landlords to engage with that. What should be a quick phone call becomes a six month back and forth, which when you elongate that over 1500 sites, that’s a lot of time.”
There was a challenge from the group to simplify the process and to make the identification of the decision-maker easier.
“If people are prepared to work together, these things can work quickly. Again, that does come down to the relationships – when you have those landlord and tenant relationships, where you are seen as more than just paying the rent – it would be great for landlords to understand your business. When you have a good relationship with your tenants, they’re more likely to take on longer leases,” said Andrew Wadsworth, corporate real estate UK & Ireland property manager for DHL.
Companies that can are looking at alternate spaces, including high street retail outlets, to meet their space requirements. Newcomer to the UK market, quick-commerce company, Getir, offer 10-minute grocery deliveries and leading online takeaway delivery service, Deliveroo, is taking space in retail outlets to supplement their requirements. Deliveroo has also embarked on offering pick-ups from these retail spaces and dine-in with the first outlet being trialled in Hong Kong.
Optimism in the current climate
When asked about the current cost of living crisis and world issues the response was stoic, “It is a perfect storm but it is nothing new. We look at the last two years and we have found these issues, we’ve worked our way around them and we have successfully expanded. If you go back a bit further, we had the real estate crash – it’s something that is constantly happening and we just have to innovate and look at a way to get around it,” said Ben Fawcett, global head of real estate for Deliveroo.
Yunus Goktas, Getir’s real estate project lead for Europe & Ireland, pointed out that Getir launched in Turkey in 2015 and expanded to nine countries in 2021 when the pandemic was at its peak. It now has 1,100 gstores and 40 million app downloads. With a recent injection of $768 million in funding, it looks like there is no slowing down in the near future.
How can Yardi technology help?
Cloud-based technology helped companies throughout the pandemic and it is not stopping any time soon. Yardi’s single connected solution provides a central database for your business that combines property management and accounting with ownership, financials and more. The single connected solution gives you a holistic view of your entire portfolio with access to real-time data.
The technology can grow with your business with integrated solutions, such as Yardi Lease Manager, which offers extensive options to view and manage tenant exposure to risk or Yardi Procure to Pay, which helps you reduce manual tasks, go paperless and provides an end-to-end procurement solution.
Yardi’s technology not only helps you manage your business more efficiently, but it also provides a frictionless experience for your tenants that allows them more control and easier communication.
Book a Demo to see how Yardi can help your business be energised for tomorrow.