There is nothing new as such about logistics facilities; distribution warehouses have always featured as an essential link in the supply chain between manufacturer and retailer, between getting products from where they are made to where they will be bought and used.

What is new is the wider recognition of the role of logistics in the movement of goods between manufacturer and retailer — now necessarily a much more efficient operation in this time-is-money business environment where stock spends as little time stored as possible; in one door and out the other — and in the modern omni-channel e-commerce world between retailer and customer, and back. Don’t forget the “and back,” the not inconsiderable volume of goods ordered online that is subsequently returned to the retailer as not fitting or fit.

“Poor fit is cited as the number one reason for returns,” says Mo Barzegar, CEO and president of Logicor, The Blackstone Group’s 9.3 million-square-metre Europ