Warehouses aren’t the ‘bad guy’

Les Knight, UK Sales Director, STILL Materials Handling Ltd

I’m proud to work in the warehouse sector. It powers growth, jobs and communities.

Almost 75% of UK economic activity depends on warehousing, according to Dr Walter Boettcher, who heads up Research and Economics at Colliers UK.

And yet, we have only just been awarded our very own logistics minister. And yet, the UK Warehousing Association (UKWA) has to fight for fairer business rates in a way that critical infrastructure shouldn’t need to. And yet, National Insurance tax, and yet a two-tier planning system, and yet and yet and yet… Some policy decisions just don’t seem fair. 

Despite these headwinds, warehouse operations are resilient. It’s a place I encourage people to work, one which provides a fulfilling career. I tell them we’re the good guy, actually. 

And at a time when there are lots of young people struggling to secure a job, I suggest we champion reliable employers, not shackle them.

Analysis produced for the UKWA by Kirsten Tisdale, from logistics consultancy Aricia, shows that the UK warehousing sector employs around 760,000 people, which is more than 70% higher than the figure the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reports (440,000). 

According to Aricia’s analysis, the ONS figures miss a lot of warehousing jobs in sectors such as retail and manufacturing.

Even if you are to use the ONS's lower figure, warehousing jobs have grown by 40% since 2011, according to the analysis. In comparison, total UK employment grew by only 14% over the same period.

For me this puts warehousing well within the good-guy column.

Growth in online shopping has helped create more warehouse jobs. However, research by Savills and the UKWA in 2024 found that third-party logistics companies used more warehouse space than online retailers. High street retailers also occupied more warehouse space than online retailers.

So the narrative we sometimes hear from government about targeting the big bad online retailers by taxing warehouses more, isn’t a fair fit. Warehouses are the backbone of high street retail and of the pubs being restocked by a brewery’s 3PL partner. Viewing every warehouse as an Amazon just isn’t helpful.

I don’t doubt that the fearless voices of the UKWA and Logistics UK – among other trade bodies – will educate the new Minister within an inch of his life on the key role of warehousing and logistics as employers and as key players for economic growth.

“Our sector already contributes £175 billion in GVA every year… in fact, our industry enables more than £1 trillion of international trade every year… the sector has the potential to boost UK economic growth by a further £8 billion a year,” said Ben Fletcher, Logistics UK’s Chief Executive, earlier this year. 

I visit warehouses regularly, and I talk to the people who run them. They are problem solvers, employers and partners to the businesses we all rely on – from shops and pubs to manufacturers and online retailers. My role as Sales Director for STILL Materials Handling Ltd in the UK is to bring practical solutions to those operations and to help them keep moving safely, efficiently and confidently. If policymakers want growth, resilience and better work across the UK, they should start by seeing warehouses for what they are: not the bad guy, but one of the quiet forces keeping the economy moving.