16 DC VELOCITY DECEMBER 2019 www.dcvelocity.com
newsworthy
Companies in the retail and consumer packaged-goods (CPG) sectors
are poised to adopt new technologies such as 5G wireless networks, augmented reality (AR), and frictionless commerce platforms as they head
into 2020, according to an analysis of consumer purchasing habits by the
consumer data analytics firm Nielsen Holdings plc.
Those investments will be driven by companies’ efforts in the coming
decade to manage challenges such as a growing need for trust and transparency and for accelerated time-to-purchase, Nielsen said.
According to Nielsen, the answers to these challenges lie in “fusing the
overall consumer experience with smarter, intuitive tech,” from pop-up
shops with cashierless payment to automated warehouses in urban centers.
“Consumers require zero resistance from discovery to assessment to shopping to payment to fulfillment. Speed and convenience will drive behavior—and every millisecond reduced is a battle won,” the company said.
In pursuit of those goals, manufacturers will face increased pressure to
produce locally, import fewer goods, and search for economic differentiation, the firm predicted. Those moves will help them battle the winds
of protectionism, trade wars, slower overall economic growth, and the
increasing effects of climate change.
At the same time, smart supply chains will emerge that are capable of
anticipating and reacting to consumer demands, according to Nielsen.
“Brands and retailers who win the 2020s will succeed not based on their
front-end pricing and promotion analytics but on the granularity and
end-to-end depth of their data science,” the company said. ;
Retailers look to 5G, AR for a
competitive edge in 2020
Strong growth in online grocery sales is
spurring demand for cold-storage warehousing space in the United States, but
meeting that demand may be challenging because of the cost and complexity
of building such facilities, according to
a report from real-estate services and
investment firm CBRE Group Inc.
Earlier this year, CBRE forecast that
the U.S. cold-storage industry—which
makes up 2% to 3% of overall U.S.
industrial real estate—will need to add
up to 100 million square feet of additional capacity to keep pace with the
anticipated growth of online grocery
sales over the next three years. In its
newest report, CBRE identified a host of
challenges that will make it tough to fill
the void, including higher construction
costs and longer development times
associated with cold storage.
As of the second quarter of 2019,
in-progress and newly completed
cold-storage construction amounted to
just 1.5% of overall industrial real-estate construction in the U.S., according
to CBRE. The real-estate services firm
teamed up with Bridge Development
Partners to identify some key differences between constructing cold-storage
facilities and building traditional warehouses:
; Cold-storage construction costs two
to three times as much as building a traditional “dry” warehouse on average,
due in part to the need for insulated
metal paneling, mechanical equipment,
refrigeration equipment, and rooftop
equipment.
; For similar reasons, construction of
cold-storage warehouses often can take
four to five months longer than for dry
warehouses.
; Cold-storage warehouses require
higher ceilings ( 40 to 60 feet) than are
found in traditional warehouses ( 34 to
36 feet). The extra height is needed to
increase the number of pallet positions
per cubic foot. ;
Demand surges for
cold-storage warehousing,
CBRE says
Third-party service provider RLS Logistics has opened a food-grade
ambient storage facility in Vineland, New Jersey. Located adjacent
to the company’s current Vineland cold-storage facility, the new
warehouse will offer an additional 36,000 square feet of storage
space to the 3PL’s customers. … Kinedyne LLC, a designer, manufacturer, and distributor of cargo-control technologies, including
straps, webbing, and tie-downs for
flatbed trucks, has opened a new distribution facility in Prattville, Alabama.
… Third-party logistics service provider Seko Logistics has opened a
103,000-square-foot global gateway in
Chicago, with 17 dock and ramp doors
and a five-high pallet-racking storage
system. The new facility will serve as a cross-border e-commerce
parcel-processing hub for Seko’s growing international, domestic,
and returns parcel solutions. … Healthcare products distributor Cardinal Health has signed a long-term lease with Dedeaux
Properties to occupy a newly constructed 1,012,995-square-foot
state-of-the-art warehouse and distribution center in Riverside,
California.
ground breakers
SEKO LOGISTICS
