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Hines acquires six Dutch logistics assets

Posted on 16 December, 2022 by Keith McKinley

Hines, the global real estate investment, development, and property manager, has advised its Hines European Core Fund (HECF) on the acquisition of six fully occupied logistics assets in the Randstad area in Aalsmeer, Honselersdijk and Rijnsburg in The Netherlands.

The business parks, on which the assets are located, are majority owned and managed by Royal FloraHolland (RFH), the world’s largest floricultural marketplace and a major contributor to The Netherlands’ world-renowned role within the flower industry. In 2021, the value of The Netherlands’ flower and plant import and export market reached €7.3bn, with a further €865m of flowers imported and distributed through business parks such as those operated by RFH.

The acquired buildings, spanning 92,000 sq m, are fully leased to six occupiers operating within The Netherlands’ floricultural trade market, each on a long-term lease. The properties are in the heart of the densely populated Randstad area, the economic heartland of The Netherlands, which accounts for a significant proportion of the country’s GDP and has a population of over 8.4m. The assets are clustered near the three major Dutch flower auction sites, giving occupiers excellent access to high concentrations of wholesale and retail flower vendors and purchasers.

Hines builds on investment

Andy Smith, managing director and country head – The Netherlands at Hines, commented: “The portfolio aggregation of these fully leased properties builds on our investment, development and management platform in Dutch logistics. The agricultural and floricultural logistics market is undergoing substantial consolidation, transformation and modernisation while remaining among the most resilient segments of a turbulent economy.

“We are proud to support our tenants in their continued success and we look forward to maintaining and improving the quality of these business critical assets through long term value creation via our property management initiatives.”

Simone Pozzato, managing director and HECF fund manager, added: “Our European core-fund, HECF, completed the first phase of its aggregation of six fully occupied last-mile logistics assets in the highly sought-after Randstad area in The Netherlands, via four off-market and one direct market acquisitions, achieving a considerable portfolio size, at an attractive entry yield.

“Our ability to source and aggregate opportunities off market through our strong local teams has enabled us to decisively spot value and quickly close in prime occupier locations. To add further value on behalf of our investors, we will also seek to provide property management services and implement strategic ESG improvements aiming to reduce carbon emissions and increase efficiency.”

In 2022, Hines has completed €797m of logistics transactions across Europe, in markets including Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, The UK and The Netherlands. Hines’ European logistics AUM now stands at €3bn.

£24bn of goods held up by SC issues

Posted on 16 December, 202210 October, 2025 by David Priestman

A report from Barclays Corporate Banking reveals that goods with a total value of £23.6bn are awaiting completion in UK manufacturers’ warehouses because of supply chain delays.

The study – ‘Chain reaction’ – focuses on manufacturing businesses with over 10 employees and looks at the impact of supply chain issues. Barclays’ research shows that over seven in 10 (72%) businesses are currently holding items in their warehouses awaiting completion because raw materials, ingredients or component parts have not yet been delivered from suppliers. On average, this ‘unfinished business’ is worth over £1m to each company impacted.

Products in the steel and metals sector are most severely affected, with £9bn worth of goods incomplete – equivalent to almost a fifth (19%) of the sub-sector’s annual turnover. The most affected consumer goods sector is food and drink, with delays in sourcing ingredients causing a £3bn backlog. A high value of plastic products (£2.6bn) and electronics (£2bn) are also awaiting completion.

The trends are reflective of supply chain disruption that has challenged the manufacturing sector since the pandemic and three in five (59%) firms say they are still facing supply issues. This has been exacerbated by the invasion of Ukraine and the aftermath of the UK’s exit from the EU. Customer relationships are now being impacted: two-thirds (65%) of manufacturers say their customers are having to wait longer for products, with 15% describing the hold-ups as ‘significant’. To offset rising costs such as energy and transportation, over half (55%) of manufacturers are planning price increases for their own products, of 37% on average.

Industry is innovating

The industry is innovating to solve these challenges. Most commonly, businesses are increasing their storage capacity (39%) to prepare for the fact raw materials are taking longer to source. Meanwhile, a third (33%) are “near shoring” to move their supply chains closer to home and 32% have “friend shored” to work with suppliers in countries that have a strong trading relationship with the UK. To spread their bets, 37% of manufacturers have increased the number of different suppliers they work with.

To maintain cashflow and liquidity, over two-fifths (42%) of manufacturing firms are optimising their working capital cycles and the same amount are accessing additional bank funding. 38% are seeking a cash injection from private equity and a third (32%) are selling off assets to raise funds.

Such measures are leaving the industry confident in the medium-term. Two-thirds (66%) of companies think supply chain challenges will improve over the next six months and 86% are confident about growth next year.

Businesses have also doubled down on their commitment to sustainability despite supply chain pressures. Almost two-thirds (64%) of manufacturers say carbon reduction has become an even bigger priority in the past six months, despite nearly three quarters (73%) saying their environmental goals have become less attainable.

Goods trapped in warehouses

Amidst the business optimism, however, Barclays’ report also lays bare the threat that rising costs and supply chain disruption could pose long-term if circumstances do not improve. On average, UK manufacturers only expect to be able to sustain their operations for 15 further months if current conditions continue.

Lee Collinson, Head of Manufacturing, Transport and Logistics for Barclays Corporate Banking, said: “The British manufacturing sector has faced a perfect storm of challenges this year, with rising costs, the war in Ukraine, labour shortages and ongoing Covid lockdowns in China hitting supply chains hard. As a result, billions of pounds worth of goods are trapped in warehouses unfinished, and this may hit industry turnover in the early part of next year.

“However, manufacturing firms have done what they do best and engineered new solutions to limit the impact of the issues they face. As a result, many businesses will enter the new year with a degree of cautious optimism and confidence.”

The findings in summary:

Goods with a total value of £23.6bn are currently awaiting completion in UK manufacturers’ warehouses as key parts, ingredients and materials are delayed due to supply chain issues
£9bn of steel and metals products, £3bn of food and drink, £2.6bn of plastic goods and £2bn of electronics are unfinished because of supply logjams
With six in 10 businesses facing supply chain difficulties, manufacturers are investing in more storage space and moving suppliers closer to home to ease challenges
64% of manufacturers have faced rising costs because of the recent weakness of the pound
Trade barriers are a concern for almost one in three manufacturers. They are a particular issue for the electronics industry (43%) and the automobile industry (41%)
The top interventions that manufacturing firms would like to see from government are industrial energy transformation (37%) and a more aggressive energy price cap for the industry (32%)

Drive solutions for the bulk goods industry

Posted on 13 December, 2022 by Keith McKinley

Whether storing, conveying, weighing and dosing, or loading and unloading, Nord Drivesystems says it develops and produces scalable drive solutions for all sectors of the bulk goods industry. The drives are individually tailored to the customised application, and offer high energy efficiency paired with a robust design.

Large temperature fluctuations, abrasive ambient media, rough operating conditions: Demanding ambient conditions are common in the bulk goods industry. Drive systems used in this sector must be adequately resistant. At the same time, they should operate as energy efficiently as possible, provide easy maintenance and high reliability, and achieve a long service life. Different bulk goods require different plant arrangements that need customised drives.

Bulk goods handling from a single source

Being a long-time partner of the industry, Nord Drivesystems says it knows precisely the specific requirements of the bulk goods industry. The drive specialist globally supports operators of systems for storing, conveying, weighing, dosing, loading and unloading of bulk goods with optimised drive solutions, profound application expertise and technical support.

The powerful drive systems are characterised by maximum reliability, safety and robustness, and ensure smooth operation even in the harshest ambient conditions. Fully featured Nord drive solutions based on a modular system, consisting of frequency inverter, motor, gear unit, couplings, and brakes are selected as the basis. They are combined with solutions individually developed and designed according to customer requirements.

Ultimate reliability

Nord manufactures all gear units – even the industrial gear units up to 282kNM – with a UNICASE housing. An enclosed gear unit housing, which combines all elements of the gear unit is produced from a single piece of material. All bearing points are integrated in the housing block so that there are no sealing surfaces, which are subject to torque and radial loads. This way, the Nord gear units achieve a longer bearing life than gear casings manufactured from jointed parts and ensure efficient power transmission and high tolerance for peak loads and impacts.

Large low-friction roller bearings ensure extremely high axial and radial load capacities; high-precision axis alignment ensures quiet running.

Future-proof

Nord drives are highly reliable, have a long life, are easy to maintain and have a low energy consumption. They thereby help to reduce operating costs and minimise CO2 emissions. The system solutions also meet the requirements for Industry 4.0 applications, and with their integrated PLC functionality allow for condition monitoring and predictive maintenance.

Packaging company expands to Yorkshire site

Posted on 12 December, 2022 by Keith McKinley

Reusable packaging specialist Tosca has finalised a new 10-year lease from Onward Holdings Ltd, doubling the company’s warehousing capacity at the Yorkshire, UK site. The deal combines two 30,000 sq ft units on the Green Lane Industrial Park in Featherstone.

Tosca, a global leader in reusable plastic packaging and performance pooling solutions with a portfolio including crates, pallets, bulk containers, and more, acquired a warehouse at the location around eight years ago shortly after the facility was built. Tosca acted quickly when the unit next door became available as it coincided with the business’s expansion strategy for the region.

Onward Holdings’ continuing investment in sites in Yorkshire for commercial property development has sustained economic activity in the area. Featherstone is a sought-after supply chain location only a short distance from the major motorway infrastructure of the M62, M1 and A1M and is within easy reach of the northern container ports.

The industrial estate benefits from excellent distribution connections and is also close to the railway freight network via the nearby Wakefield Europort. According to Onward Holdings around 80% of the UK’s population is accessible in four hours, making the site ideal for bulk distribution items.

Yorkshire is “important geographic area”

Steve Raybould, Tosca’s Operations Director UK & Ireland, says: “The signing of a new and extended lease with Onward at the Featherstone site builds on our existing relationship with Onward and makes an important commitment to support our UK business for the long term, with the enlarged footprint giving us additional capacity in this important geographic area.”

Onward director, Neil Storey, added: “Tosca is a long-standing client and has been operating out of Featherstone for many years. They had first bite of the cherry when next door became available and agreed a new lease on the whole site.”

Along with logistics facilities for storage and distributing across Yorkshire, Onward Holdings also supplies value-added services, including 3PL managed warehousing, Pallet Storage, Container Emptying, Order Picking and Reworking – all controlled by its Managed Warehouse System. Suitable for both durable cargo and ambient food storage, long and short-term leases are available.

Operating high quality industrial warehousing, Onward Holdings’ sites include Castleford, Doncaster, Ackworth and Scunthorpe. The company also built Onyx Retail Park, the successful shopping and eating destination on the former Manvers colliery in South Yorkshire.

Pallite expands to meet demand

Posted on 6 December, 2022 by Keith McKinley

Pallite, the award-winning international designer and manufacturer of high-density storage bins, has taken on bigger premises in Milwaukee, US to facilitate the demand for its honeycomb cardboard pick bin units.

Since launching its strong, flexible warehouse storage solutions in the US 12 months ago and success following MODEX, Pallite has seen huge demand from a growing number of customers, including Quiet Platforms.

Over its 13-year operating history, Quiet has become the chosen fulfilment provider to the most successful and progressive digitally native companies seeking to maintain their brand identities.

With facilities located in key regions including Boston, St Louis, Chicago, Dallas & LA, working with Pallite it has been able to transform its storage and picking efficiencies.

Pallite brings business benefits

With the installation of Pallite’s PIX SLOTS storage solution, Quiet has reported considerable business benefits, including the reduction in the price per pick location, increased durability compared to previous corrugated bin boxes that would break down and need to be replaced, and also tangible improved ROI.

PIX has also provided Quiet with the flexibility it needed, scalability and customisation of the pick location dimensions, another major factor provided for by Pallite storage solutions.

“The biggest impact of installing PIX was the ability to have a storage solution able to be used for picking in our Atlanta launch,” said a spokesperson from Quiet Platforms. “From the date we acquired the building to the date we had inventory in storage ready to be picked was six weeks. Storage density has improved and picking locations per square foot has increased.

“Another major impact is inventory accuracy. There are no bin boxes being crushed and ripped causing inventory to fall on the floor. The sustainability of the units provided an additional benefit.”

Pallite PIX and PIX SLOTS is a range of lightweight, flexible, and robust storage units constructed from honeycomb paper cardboard. Designed to flex to the ever-changing demands of the modern warehouse, this innovative range of modular storage bins can be produced to each customer’s inventory requirements. PIX units maximise every inch of warehouse space, revolutionising picking efficiencies, improving pick accuracy as well as helping businesses fulfil on their sustainability goals.

Recent innovations to the range include rearward angled shelving to further alleviate stock spilling from pick faces. Rigid shelf edges with space for labels and bar codes are included for easy integration into existing pick systems.

Plug & play motor retrofit project

Posted on 5 December, 2022 by Keith McKinley

Carrying out a large scale retrofit at any facility can be daunting, but at a steel mill, where extreme conditions and high productivity demands combine, particularly so. As equipment such as motors require replacement, plant operators need to install new units quickly to safeguard uptime. That’s why Aperam, a leading producer of steel and alloy, selected Bauer Gear Motor to carry out a three-year retrofit project for the roller table conveyor drives at its Châtelet facility.

While the operating life of a motor can exceed 10 years, eventually plant managers will need to upgrade to a new efficiency standard or replace faulty units. However, the footprint and interfaces of new equipment will almost never match up to the original, which can make retrofitting a modern motor problematic. Complex mechanical adaptations to fit the new unit can be very time consuming. With demand and prices for steel and alloy through the roof, any extended downtime for a retrofit project at a steel mill must be avoided.

The Aperam Châtelet facility in Belgium consists of a melt shop and a rolling mill, which produces durable steel and alloy. During routine inspections, maintenance engineers at the plant identified that the motors powering the roller table conveyors required replacement. Due to the weight of the slab, each roller was powered by its own dedicated motor. Therefore, carrying out a motor retrofit project – which would require extensive mechanical adaptation for each unit – was unacceptable. Consequently, Aperam approached Bauer Gear Motor, a brand of Altra Industrial Motion Corp., to provide a plug and play motor retrofit solution.

Bauer retrofit solution

Bauer Gear Motor says it is a world leader in geared motor technologies, with a proven track record in providing highly robust and reliable drives for use in challenging metal industry applications. Focused on delivering motors that attain the highest efficiency standards, Bauer also offers operators in the metal industry a plug and play retrofit solution for drives operating on roller table conveyors.

The Bauer retrofit solution features two key elements. A standardised shaft connection using either a flange or coupling ensures increased ease and speed of installation. This is matched by a foot adaptor plate, which allows a one-to-one changeover between the old and new motor. A plug and play design eliminates the need for any costly, time consuming mechanical adaptations. Consequently, retrofitting new motors can be done with minimal downtime.

Plug & play solution

“What was key for the Aperam project was that we could offer a plug and play solution as a complete package, which was particularly important to engineers at the facility,” explains André, Regional Sales Manager, North Europe. “Our extensive engineering knowledge in the metals industry and the OEM support we could provide were also deciding factors. One of the primary challenges was to deliver the volume of motors required within the timeframes of the plant’s scheduled downtime, but our production capacity ensured we could achieve this. Over three years, we have updated all the motors on the roller table conveyors, bringing the system up to a new efficiency standard while also streamlining future maintenance and retrofit work.”

Bauer offers specialised motors specifically for roller table conveyors. With heavy duty fan or non-ventilated designs, the motors feature windings for delivering high torque, heavy duty gearbox housings and gear wheels, seals to withstand high temperatures and IP65 enclosures as standard.

By standardising the shaft connections and footplates for Aperam, Bauer was able to not only streamline the initial retrofit project, but all subsequent motor upgrades or replacements required for the roller table conveyors in future. This ensures that as the Châtelet facility moves to improve energy efficiency and boost reliability, these dual aims can be achieved while safeguarding production uptime.

CBRE: warehouses are getting bigger

Posted on 2 December, 2022 by Keith McKinley

The average unit size of European logistics lettings has increased more than 60% since 2011, according to the latest research from global real estate advisor, CBRE.

The average deal size reached 11,000 sq m in the first half of 2022. This has been driven by third-party logistics operators, retailers and manufacturers searching for assets that can offer them economies of scale in their operations and provide enough room for increases in their inventories.

Furthermore, XXL warehouses (units of 50,000 sq m or more) now account for 24% of total take-up, compared to just 11% in 2011. This makes them a very relevant segment for the industry and often represent key strategic investments from occupiers.

The data from CBRE also shows increased appetite from manufacturing companies to get XXL logistics facilities in Europe, as they seek to bring supplies and stock closer to their end consumer. Germany, the UK, France, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain have been the most attractive locations for manufacturers to establish their XXL warehouse locations in Europe. However, this trend is flourishing across the continent.

Joerg Kreindl, Head of Occupier Industrial and Logistics, EMEA at CBRE, said: “Not only are we seeing warehouses growing in square footage terms, but the volume of these large deals is also increasing. We expect this trend to continue over the next few years, paired with consolidation of supply chains and producing economies of scale to occupiers.”

Durable drives for belt conveyor systems

Posted on 29 November, 2022 by Keith McKinley

Nord Drivesystems has specially developed the MAXXDRIVE XT industrial gear unit for the requirements for conveyor technology drives in the bulk goods and mineral industries. It provides output torques of 15 to 75kNm with speed ratios from 6.3 to 22.4 and is offered in seven sizes for powers from 22 to 2,100kW.

The power and speed ranges of the two-stage right-angle gear unit have been specially designed for industries in which low speed ranges are required in combination with high powers – such as the bulk goods and mineral industries. Its robust design makes the MAXXDRIVE XT resistant to dirt and reliable in rough operating conditions. A special sealing concept reduces maintenance. Large roller bearings and centre distances increase the load capacity and service life of the components.

As standard, the industrial gear unit is equipped with a heavily ribbed UNICASE housing and an integrated axial fan. Due to the increased surface and the airflow covers, the cooling airflow is optimised and a very high thermal limiting power is achieved. In many cases, additional cooling is not required.

Individually configured drives

“As with other application areas, our drive solutions for the industry are individually configured for customers according to the modular principle,” emphasises Jörg Niermann, Head of Marketing at Nord Drivesystems. This is based on a comprehensive range of frequency inverters, motors and gear units, as well as coupling and brake systems, each with a wide variety of options. Features such as hydraulic couplings tailored to the particular process or Taconite seals, which effectively protect radial shaft seals against abrasive dust and corrosion, ensure smooth operation.

Nord also offers innovative predictive maintenance concepts for heavy industrial gear units. Nord drives networked via the frequency inverter communicate their status data via the control system or directly into a secure cloud. With optional vibration monitoring, condition changes can be detected at an early stage and predictive maintenance can be scheduled in good time. Performance data recording also ensures optimal system dimensioning as well as continuous condition monitoring of the drives.

Fashion group DK Company gets new racking

Posted on 29 November, 2022 by Keith McKinley

NC Nielsen, AR Racking’s Danish strategic distributor, carried out the design and installation of the new warehouse of the multi-brand fashion group DK Company in Ikast (Denmark) in an extraordinary time of just nine weeks leading the comprehensive management of the project.

DK Company has become one of the main European suppliers of fashion brands for men and women. With a presence in 35 different markets, the Danish company has a new 11,000 sq m operations centre to meet the growth experienced in recent years. Specifically, in 2021 it increased its revenue by 20% compared to the previous year and the forecasts for 2022 are along the same lines.

The storage area, which covers a total surface area of 3,000 sq m, stands out for its versatility and rapid location of the goods. NC Nielsen, considered the high number of references and diversity of the volume of the products to configure a solution with adjustable pallet racking that integrates levels for manual picking operations. In total, 4,000 pallet positions, of which 60% will be for picking.

Top quality racking for DK Company

DK Company communicated to NC Nielsen the urgency to have an agile, easy to configure, secure and adaptable warehouse. “It was a very quick and continuous process: from the first meeting to the first layout, the order and completing the installation in a total of nine weeks,” said Niels Henrik Hagelskjær, DK Company Warehouse Manager.

With more than five decades of experience, NC Nielsen stands out for its reliability, specialised service and high quality standards. “DK Company needed a fast project turnaround time, so having a top quality racking manufacturer and supplier such as AR Racking allowed us to fully focus on the study, design, advisory and planning aspect of the project to offer the customer the best storage solution in the most competitive timeframe possible,” explained Lars Kjærgaard Stenberg, NC Nielsen Project Manager.

Solid and strategic partnership

AR Racking’s commercial presence in more than 60 countries is mainly coordinated and consolidated through its distribution network. In Northern Europe and Scandinavian countries, AR Racking has been competing for years with total reliability and efficiency thanks to strategic partners such as NC Nielsen.

María Cossio, AR Racking Area Manager, explained it as follows: “We offer close support to the distributor, providing them with our specialisation as a manufacturer to effectively fulfil the needs of local companies in storage matters; however, none of this would be possible without having trusted partners such as NC Nielsen.”

DHL Supply Chain develops carbon neutral warehouses

Posted on 24 November, 2022 by Keith McKinley

The real estate experts of DHL Supply Chain, the global contract logistics provider, have developed a carbon neutral real estate portfolio of 400,000 sq m to support customers’ growth requirements across six European Tier 1 markets. Located in central logistics areas, all sites will benefit from excellent multi modal transport connectivity, designed to serve customers across different sectors.

All buildings will have modern technical specifications, reflecting a campus concept and become mission-critical hubs for DHL Supply Chain and its national and international customers. The 14 units, constructed across 10 development sites, are located across major logistics markets in Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Italy and Poland. All buildings will meet key sustainability criteria such as BREEAM Excellent and EPC A, comply with EU taxonomy and undergo a Carbon Risk Real Estate Monitor (CRREM) assessment.

“The development of 400,000 sq m of carbon neutral warehouses is an important strategic step as we aim to meet our customers’ growing demand for more sustainable warehouse space in strategic markets,” says Hendrik Venter, CEO DHL Supply Chain EMEA. “All assets we develop are underpinned by excellent fundamentals; be it sustainability, digitalisation, location, demographics or tenure. Connectivity or proximity to key sales markets help us improve delivery times for our customers, while a close eye on the surrounding social factors and communities in which we operate help us to generate attractive jobs and ensuring us access to a loyal and capable workforce. These factors help us and our customers to be even more successful and lead the way into a more sustainable future.”

DHL Supply Chain finds strategic partner

For a first tranche of this 400,000 sq m warehouse portfolio, DHL Supply Chain has already found an investor and strategic partner. Allianz Real Estate, acting on behalf of several Allianz Group companies, and DHL have entered into a purchase agreement for the sale of the first half of the portfolio. The warehouses, which are set to be completed between Q1 2023 to Q1 2024, will represent one of Allianz Real Estate’s largest single logistics sector acquisitions, in terms of gross leasable area, to date: in total the five facilities will cover over 200,000 sq m.

DHL Supply Chain will occupy at least 85% of the facilities developed for Allianz Real Estate on long-term leases post completion.

“We are very proud to be able to offer our clients effective growth opportunities, with warehouses that are not only located in core markets and fulfil our clients’ needs, but also meet the highest ESG and sustainability criteria,” says Joe Mikes, Global Head of Real Estate Solutions at DHL Supply Chain. “This enables us and our customers to create business opportunities that are compatible with our Sustainability Roadmap, which aims to make every aspect of the supply chain more sustainable which of course also includes our real estate. We are very much looking forward to many more such projects in the future.”