One of the UK’s leading independent freight forwarders, International Forwarding Ltd (IFL), has just taken over its third large, secure, storage warehouse in Birmingham and the West Midlands.
The 3,700 sq m (40,000 sq ft) warehouse in Garretts Green, Birmingham, is already starting to fill up with short and long-term goods storage bound for UK and European destinations. The further expansion comes a year after the company almost doubled its storage space with a second 2,000 sq m facility located at its Coleshill HQ.
>> To secure storage space today, call +44 (0)1675 434690 or email us for a quote at sales@internationalforwarding.co.uk.
Our third storage warehouse in Birmingham
This third pallet storage unit supports the company’s growth plans and its aim to become one of the leading warehouse companies in the Midlands for imports and exports. The new facility will provide significant additional capacity – up to 6,000 pallets. It is located on the site of Birmingham’s former Hovis bakery, which closed in 2013, within close proximity of Birmingham city centre, the M42 and M6, and Birmingham International Airport.
With ongoing coronavirus restrictions on air and sea freight capacity, warehouse storage remains an area of high demand for importers and exporters across the West Midlands. Many businesses are storing extra goods ahead of Brexit changes and higher customs tariffs from 1 January 2021 in order to minimise disruption to their supply chains.
Warehouses at capacity
Rob Pike, Managing Director, International Forwarding, said: “These are tough times for everyone. But we are very excited to be opening our third warehouse at this strategic site for goods coming into Birmingham or being shipped to Europe. It’s a fantastic growth opportunity for the company and will significantly increase our storage capacity.
“Like many other forwarders, our warehouse operations have been running at near maximum capacity throughout lockdown. The trend for over-purchasing of goods from Europe is one that is likely to continue in the lead up to Brexit, and for the next year at least, as companies try to cushion the impacts of disrupted supply chains.
“Even where goods have been delivered, many companies don’t want to take delivery or install products/components because they are operating on a skeleton staff with furloughed employees. We are also now able to offer additional temporary space to other freight and logistics operators who are also at capacity.”
Andy Grubb, Sales Director, International Forwarding, added: “Ultimately this is about delivering high quality, cost-effective supply chain logistics to the marketplace. We see this investment as a way to strengthen our service offering, especially to local businesses in Birmingham and the West Midlands who trade with Europe. The increased capacity should also help us to bring in additional forwarding and pallet distribution contracts from new UK and overseas customers.”
Get a pallet storage quote
IFL now has three substantial distribution warehouses in the West Midlands, at the heart of the UK transport network. We also offer 30+ years’ experience in pick and pack, product reworking, pallet picking, container destuffing and offloading services.
Get in touch today to secure short or long-term warehouse space at competitive rates, or to discuss your storage and cargo handling needs.
Call 01675 434690 or email sales@internationalforwarding.co.uk.
You can also read more about our wide range of freight and logistics services, and services to Birmingham and West Midlands businesses, at the following links:
- Logistics
- Warehousing
- Cargo handling
- Supply chain management (3PL)
- Birmingham and the West Midlands logistics
About IFL
International Forwarding was founded in 1989 to fill a niche in the West Midlands of providing a personalised bespoke freight forwarding service to local exporters and importers. The company has continued to go from strength to strength and now has 60 staff, a fleet of 20 trucks and a turnover of almost £10 million.
Since joining Palletways, Europe’s largest and fastest growing express palletised freight network, in 2002, International Forwarding has built a strong network of European partners to provide pan-European door-to-door export and import groupage services and is now a Platinum member, an accreditation earned as a result of high quality and consistent customer service.
Earlier this year, it also won several contracts to help supply the NHS with imported masks, PPE and other medical kit.
