Your Warehouse Is Full. Now What?

Running out of warehouse space sounds like the sort of problem a growing business should be pleased to have. More stock, more orders and more products going out of the door should all be good news. And they are. Right up until you realise there’s nowhere left to put anything.

Suddenly, pallets are appearing in places they were never intended to be, incoming deliveries are becoming harder to accommodate and the warehouse team is spending far too much time moving stock around just to reach something else. What was once a well-organised operation gradually starts becoming a complicated game of Tetris.

It’s a situation we can help customers with at Frederick R Miller. Alongside our transport operation, we have a 40,000 sq ft warehouse in Surrey, providing short and long-term storage, container de-stuffing, order picking and packing. And because warehousing sits alongside our transport services, we can do considerably more than simply find somewhere to put a few spare pallets.

How did the warehouse get so full?

Businesses run short of space for all sorts of reasons, and it certainly doesn’t mean something has gone wrong. Quite often, it means exactly the opposite. Growth is an obvious reason. A warehouse that comfortably handled a company’s stock a few years ago may simply have been overtaken by the business. More customers mean more products, new ranges appear and stock levels gradually increase until one day somebody notices there really isn’t anywhere left to put the next delivery.

Seasonality creates a different problem. Retailers may build stock ahead of Christmas, while garden and outdoor businesses have very different requirements depending on the time of year. Manufacturers might bring in larger quantities of components to protect against supply disruption or because buying in volume makes commercial sense.

Then there are imports. A container arriving from overseas doesn’t particularly care whether Wednesday happens to be a convenient day for another few hundred boxes to turn up. Sometimes everything simply arrives at once. We can provide extra capacity when that happens without the customer having to completely rethink their own operation.

Do you really need another warehouse?

If a business is permanently operating beyond the sensible capacity of its premises, moving to a larger warehouse may eventually be the right answer. But it’s a significant commitment and not something most companies want to do unless they really need to.

More space generally means more rent, rates, utilities, insurance and maintenance. Depending on the business, it might also require additional racking, handling equipment and warehouse staff.

And once you’ve taken on that extra capacity, you’re paying for it throughout the year whether it’s full or half empty.

That makes perfect sense if the business has permanently outgrown its current premises. It makes rather less sense if the extra space is only needed for a few months, a large one-off order or a seasonal increase in stock.

Our warehouse gives customers another option. They can use additional capacity when they need it without automatically committing themselves to additional premises of their own. For one customer that could mean storing a relatively small number of pallets. For another it could involve considerably more stock.

The important bit is that the space is there when it’s needed.

We can do more than store it

Warehousing for us isn’t simply about putting a pallet in a building and leaving it there until somebody asks for it back.

A good example is imported goods. A customer might have a container arriving containing far more stock than they can comfortably accommodate at their own premises. Rather than trying to squeeze everything into an already busy warehouse, the container can come to us.

We can de-stuff it, bring the goods into our warehouse and store them. When the customer needs the stock, we can pick and pack orders ready for dispatch and arrange the onward transport as well.

That changes the relationship considerably. Instead of the customer having to arrange somewhere to store the goods, somebody to handle them and then another company to distribute them, those different parts of the process can be brought together.

It also means the customer doesn’t necessarily need all of their stock sitting within arm’s reach.

What actually needs to be in your warehouse?

This is a question worth asking if space is becoming tight.

Most businesses have fast-moving stock they need access to constantly. But there will often be other products, spare components, packaging, promotional materials or seasonal stock that might sit untouched for weeks at a time. If 50 pallets are taking up valuable space but only need to be accessed occasionally, do they really need to be in your own warehouse?

Moving slower-moving stock into external storage can create breathing room surprisingly quickly. The customer's own warehouse can then concentrate on the goods being picked and moved regularly, while the other stock remains available when required.

There’s also an operational benefit. A crowded warehouse isn't simply short of space; it can become less efficient. If staff are continually moving one pallet to get to another, incoming deliveries take longer to put away and working areas become increasingly congested, valuable time is being lost.

Sometimes a business doesn’t actually have a warehouse that’s too small. It has too much stock in the warehouse that doesn’t need to be there today.

Giving seasonal businesses some breathing room

Seasonal peaks are probably one of the clearest examples of where our warehouse can help.

Imagine a business that needs twice its normal stockholding in the run-up to Christmas but returns to normal levels by January. Building permanent warehouse capacity around those busiest few weeks could mean paying for empty space for much of the rest of the year.

Using our warehouse for the additional stock provides another option. Goods can be held with us during the peak period and then released as required. The same principle works for other seasonal businesses. A garden products company might have its busiest period at a completely different time of year, while a manufacturer could experience a sudden increase after winning a large contract. Businesses don't always grow neatly and predictably. Having access to additional space can provide some useful breathing room when things change unexpectedly.

The real advantage is what happens next

This is where we think combining warehousing and transport becomes particularly useful.

If goods are already stored with us, we don't simply hand the customer another problem when they want them moved. We can pick and prepare the stock and then arrange the most appropriate onward delivery.

For palletised freight, our long-standing relationship with Palletways gives customers access to UK and European distribution. We also operate our own fleet for direct, full and part-load movements, with international freight services available for goods travelling further afield. So a shipment can arrive with us, be unloaded, stored, picked when needed and then dispatched to the customer’s destination.

That's a very different proposition from simply renting some floor space. It can also make life considerably easier for the customer because there are fewer separate companies and processes to coordinate. Warehousing and distribution become part of the same operation.

What if you're growing quickly?

There's another situation where this approach can make sense.

A growing business might know that it will eventually need larger premises, but that doesn't necessarily mean it needs them tomorrow. Moving warehouse operations is disruptive and expensive. Using additional external capacity can give a growing company time to make that decision properly rather than being forced into it simply because the existing warehouse has run out of room.

It can provide a useful bridge between where the business is now and where it expects to be in a year or two. Of course, there will come a point for some businesses when moving to larger premises is absolutely the right decision. External warehousing isn't the answer to everything.

But before signing a long lease, it's worth asking whether the problem is permanent, seasonal or simply about how the existing stock is being managed.

Your warehouse is full. So what now?

Probably don't try to squeeze one more pallet into that last remaining corner. Running short of space can be a sign that business is going well, but it can quickly become an operational headache if it starts affecting how efficiently people can work. The answer doesn't automatically have to be taking on another building.

At Frederick R Miller, our 40,000 sq ft Surrey warehouse sits alongside the transport and distribution operation we've built over many years. We can receive goods, de-stuff containers, provide short or long-term storage, pick and pack orders and then arrange onward delivery through Palletways, our own fleet or the appropriate international service.

For customers, that means we're not just offering somewhere to put their stock. We can help look after the process from the point goods arrive with us until they're ready to reach their next destination. So if your warehouse is starting to resemble that game of Tetris we mentioned earlier, give us a call before you start looking for another building.

There may be a much simpler answer.