The political changes taking place in the country at the end of the 20th century and Poland’s subsequent accession to the European Union had a positive impact on the development of the economy and its internationalization. The domestic economic market was opened wide and is rapidly striving to integrate into the common EU market. In these highly favorable conditions, the rapid development of Polish logistics also began, a field which, according to the European Logistics Association (ELA), is defined as: “The management of the flow of goods and/or people and the activities supporting these processes in the systems in which they occur.” All processes occurring in corporate logistics, supply chains, and a country’s logistics networks are closely linked as a result of the utilization of the logistics infrastructure existing in its territory. Regardless of the criteria for classifying this infrastructure, one of its most important links is warehouse infrastructure.
The Report on the State of Logistics in Poland, published periodically by the Institute of Logistics and Warehousing, clearly demonstrated that warehouse infrastructure is developing rapidly. Many investments related to the construction of modern warehouse facilities have been located in our country. The increase in new warehouse space in Poland between 2004 and 2007 is shown in Figure 1. It is clearly visible that there was a distinct increase in modern warehouse space in subsequent years, which means that demand was constantly growing.
It should be noted, however, that their distribution across the country varied by individual voivodeships. Table 1 summarizes the sizes of new warehouse space by investor in 2007.
According to analyses conducted by Cushman & Wakefield Poland, the market for modern warehouse space is developing faster in Poland than in other Central and Eastern European countries. The growth trend at the end of 2007 continued, as illustrated in Figure 2. The economic recession observed in 2008 certainly caused a slowdown in construction investments, but not enough to completely halt the growth of new warehouse space. It should be assumed that the investments that had been started were and are being continued.
Observing the modern warehouse facilities being put into operation, it can be noted that they are characterized by similar standards. These are mainly single-story facilities (photo 1), adapted on one hand for the transshipment handling of road transport vehicles, and on the other for high-bay storage. In general, they have warehouse modules of varying sizes with loading docks (photo 2) with sectional doors, equipped with powered dock levelers and dock shelters. The facilities have access to all utilities, have air conditioning allowing for the adjustment of microclimatic conditions to the needs of the stored assortments, a computer network, and a monitoring system. I have deliberately not mentioned telephony and the Internet, because access to them currently poses no problem, which is enabled by wireless connectivity. There are few places left in Poland without telecommunications coverage.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 1/2009.