The number of warehouses in the UK has grown exponentially over the last three years, largely driven by the surge in online shopping during the Covid-19 pandemic. As a result, retailers have invested heavily in their warehouse estate to meet the rapid increase in consumer demand. In this blog, our Business Development Manager, Matthew Cassidy explores how warehouses are evolving to keep pace with changing consumer habits and why warehouse owners must reassess their fire safety and security systems now to ensure they are still fit for purpose. As the global economy strives to recover from the health events of 2020, building resilient supply chains remains a top priority for businesses as they aim to futureproof their organisations from further disruption. The warehouse is a crucial part of the supply chain. It bridges the gap between the production of goods and their consumption, allowing goods to be stored securely and – when needed – picked, packed and distributed to their final destination.

Warehouse growth

According to a recent analysis by the Office of National Statistics (ONS), the number of business premises used for logistics and warehousing in the UK has almost doubled in the last decade. In 2021, the number of UK business premises classified as transport and storage was 88% higher than in 2011 and 21% higher than in 2019. Not only are we seeing more warehouses in the UK today, but the trend is leaning towards building bigger too – there has been a staggering 242% increase in units of 1m+ square feet, with the average unit now being 340,000 square feet, a 56.68% increase when compared to 2015 statistics. But such rapid growth has created an obstacle for supply chains – a shortage of available warehouse space. In Q3 2020, Amazon accounted for one-third of take-up of warehouse space for the year, a total of 11.5 million square feet.3 And other e-commerce retailers have similarly been quick to snap up new units. Where retailers have been unable to “buy new”, they have been forced to adapt their existing estate, which can be both costly and presents great challenges when trying to run a 24/7/365 operation. By warehouse spaces, we are not just talking about your traditional palletised warehouses. Today, warehouse spaces exist in many forms and are relied upon to perform an ever-growing array of tasks, from cross-docking and cold storage to last-mile warehouses and fully automated fulfilment centres.

Warehouse review

At Chubb, we understand that warehouses present a dynamic environment under constant pressure to adapt to change. With that change comes the need to regularly reassess operations to ensure that all processes and the systems installed are fit for purpose – including your fire safety and security systems. Building on more than 200 years of innovation, our specialist teams at Chubb have the expertise to deliver a comprehensive range of fire safety and security solutions designed to suit the scale and complexity of your estate. In addition, our extensive branch network of engineers is backed up by two NSI-accredited Alarm Receiving Centres (ARC), giving you complete confidence that your warehouses are being monitored 24/7/365. If your estate has grown rapidly in recent years, chances are you have multiple different suppliers for your fire safety and security equipment. This lack of consistency in procurement makes it difficult to control costs, with different risk assessments and maintenance schedules to keep on top of your different equipment, as well as ensuring staff training at your multiple locations is kept up to date. Using a single trusted, strategic partner, like Chubb, for all your fire safety and security needs can build peace of mind, mitigate risk and, ultimately, offer you a more cost-effective and future-proof solution.

Fire safety considerations

The UK has seen a dramatic spike in warehouse fires in recent years, according to recent research and analysis by insurer Zurich UK. During 2021-2022 the number of warehouse and bulk storage fires soared by a quarter, with 322 blazes compared to 256 during 2020-2021. While the number of accidental fires climbed by 21% (from 228 to 276), the number of deliberate blazes increased by an alarming 64% (from 28 to 46.) With the e-commerce boom of recent years, it’s thought that the shift to adapting older buildings in the absence of sufficient new space is largely to blame for the increase in warehouse fires as, naturally, older buildings pose a greater fire risk. Interestingly, despite the 3,400 warehouse blazes attended by fire crews between 2010 and 2021, 49% did not have fire alarms and just over 6% had sprinkler systems installed. As part of our service at Chubb, we will sit down with you to ensure we understand the full scale of your estate, and the needs of your different warehouses. High-bay warehouses, for instance, should refrain from installing sprinklers on the roofs and eaves. As you can imagine, the deluge of a sprinkler system could destroy vast amounts of stock. The efficiency of a warehouse is often based on the number of available pallet spaces, so if you have a sprinkler system, quite often you lose the top pallet space across your racking – as putting a pallet space on top of the racking could be too close to the sprinkler head. In a large warehouse this could mean losing 100s, if not 1000s, of pallet spaces. So, in this scenario, we would go down a different route, which could be installing more fire extinguishers or beam detectors. Another consideration is maintenance and servicing. Conventional fire safety systems can often be installed up at height, making it difficult for engineers to access sprinkler heads and smoke detectors, as most engineers are trained to work from the floor. For this, we offer aspiration systems, a series of pipework that takes the smoke detection up into the eaves, but the actual control panel is down at ground level, so engineers can easily access it.

Security considerations

When it comes to security, although warehouses are commonly manned sites, this does not eradicate the need for CCTV technology. Today’s cameras do far more than look at an area to see if someone is trying to break in; they offer a whole host of analytics. Things like monitoring the flow of staff and the movement of vehicles give warehouse owners invaluable information about how their site operates, allowing them to explore lean management so they can adapt to improve efficiencies. In the warehouse environment, another consideration is lone workers and how best to mitigate the risks of working alone. Security guards, delivery drivers and HGV operators are all classed as lone workers. At Chubb, we recently launched a new solution for this very purpose. Our SafeZone® app has been designed to ensure that lone workers can be quickly located and assistance provided in an emergency. Easy to use, the app can be installed on the latest smart phones and is simple to deploy across most organisations. For large multi-site warehouse operations, our enterprise solution provides a complete cloud-based emergency management platform, which includes mass notifications, command posts, analytics and reporting. All alerts through SafeZone® are monitored and responded to 24/7/365 by our two ARCs, providing peace of mind for the employee and employer. To find out more about our comprehensive range of fire safety and security solutions for warehouses, please contact our team of experts by filling the enquiry form here