Warehousing and Logistics buoyed on modern solutions

A tactically placed and well-planned warehouse not only mends the consumer services but also facilitates competitive advantage through efficient supply chain economics, says Aditya Virwani, COO, Embassy Group in an interaction with ACE Update.

Briefly tell us about the role played by your company in the warehousing and logistics space in the past few years.
India is an evolving economy where the manufacturing sector is driven by superior logistics and warehousing systems. Warehouse is the key factor that influences the entire value chain, starting from raw material to having satisfied customers. So there is huge space to play and Embassy Industrial Parks, a JV between Embassy Group and Warburg Pincus, offers solutions to the challenges of companies struggling with building and managing industrial and warehousing spaces. We have started by bringing industrial parks to 8 key cities of India – Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Hosur, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Chennai and gradually move into other metros. These modern well planned, technology-enabled industrial and warehousing solutions are targeted at industry verticals like E-Commerce, 3PL, Automobile Ancillaries, FMCG and Retail. We take into consideration factors like strategic land positioning that makes business more convenient. When an industrial park is planned there are certain aspects the require proper attention for example we are providing globally approved amenities like rest areas for drivers, dormitories, round the clock canteen, first aid centres, 24/7 security coverage an excellent fire-fighting system, ample parking space for trucks so the flow of the traffic remains unaffected and does not hamper workflow. We also provide built-to-suit industrial and logistics parks where clients can ask for 2X expandability as per their requirement.

Briefly give us an overview of the Indian Warehousing industry.
Warehousing and logistics players are actively partnering in embracing modern solutions to handle inventory management, usage of fleet management software and RFID (radio frequency identification) systems. A tactically placed and well-planned warehouse not only mends the consumer services but also facilitates competitive advantage through efficient supply chain economics. At this rate, the current warehousing space is said to double in 3 years – 2022. However, 2018 has witnessed a 22 per cent year-on-year growth in total stock in Grade A & B warehousing space in top eight cities while absorption witnessed a 60 per cent year-on-year growth in these markets. Well-structured reforms like GST implementation, establishment of logistic department in the ministry of commerce and other upgrading in the policy has made the growth even more likely. Growing manufacturing activity, rising domestic consumption, increasing international trade, emergence of organised retail in the country, increasing private and foreign investments in infrastructure along with the e-commerce boom will keep this vigorous development active for the next few years to come.

How do you make the industrial parks more sustainable?
We take sustainability very seriously. Our parks are built-in-large scale so that we can put orders in process to always keep environment management as a top priority. Our parks are all compliant with IGBC certification, one of the most successful green building certification systems in the world. Additionally, along with our facility team we provide full support to green initiative suggested by our clients.

The current warehousing space is said to double in 3 years – 2022. However, 2018 has witnessed a 22 per cent year-on-year growth in total stock in Grade A & B warehousing space in top eight cities in the country, while absorption witnessed a 60 per cent year-on-year growth in these markets.
Aditya Virwani, COO, Embassy Group

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