Not long ago, most deliveries followed a fairly predictable route. Products arrived at a large distribution centre, were stored until needed and then transported to stores or customers across the country.

That model still plays an important role, but changing customer expectations are reshaping the way many businesses think about warehousing.

Today, shoppers expect groceries in under an hour, online orders within a day or two and accurate delivery updates every step of the way. Meeting those expectations isn’t always about driving faster. Increasingly, it’s about storing products closer to where customers already are.

Bigger Isn’t Always Better

For years, businesses focused on building large distribution centres that could supply entire regions from a single location. Centralising inventory reduced operating costs and made stock easier to manage.

As online shopping has grown, however, a different challenge has emerged.

Sending every order from one large facility often means longer delivery distances, increased transport costs and less flexibility during busy periods.

That’s why many retailers are complementing their larger distribution centres with smaller fulfilment facilities positioned closer to urban areas.

Speed Starts Inside the Warehouse

Businesses such as Checkers have shown how customer expectations have changed. Services like Sixty60 have raised the bar for grocery deliveries, making rapid order fulfilment part of everyday retail rather than a premium offering.

Behind those deliveries is a network designed for speed. Products are stored closer to customers, picked quickly and dispatched within minutes of an order being placed.

Retailers such as Takealot and Amazon South Africa are also investing in fulfilment networks that shorten the distance between inventory and customers, helping reduce delivery times while improving service levels.

It’s Not About Replacing Large Warehouses

Smaller fulfilment centres aren’t replacing traditional distribution centres.

Instead, they’re becoming another layer within the supply chain.

Large facilities continue receiving bulk stock, managing inventory and supplying regional networks. Smaller urban facilities focus on processing customer orders quickly, allowing businesses to respond to growing demand for faster deliveries without placing unnecessary pressure on their main warehouses.

Each type of facility has a different role, but together they create a more flexible distribution network.

The Warehouse Is Getting Closer

As delivery expectations continue to evolve, businesses are rethinking where inventory should be stored rather than simply how quickly it can be transported.

For many organisations, that means bringing products closer to customers, reducing the distance between an online order and the front door. It’s a reminder that faster deliveries don’t always begin with the truck. More often, they begin with where the warehouse is located in the first place.

The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport South Africa (CILTSA), brought warehouse leaders, technology specialists and supply chain professionals together in Johannesburg on 9 July for its 2026 Warehousing Conference. The event explored how digitalisation, technology and artificial intelligence can turn warehouses into high-performance distribution engines.

Under the theme ‘From Warehouse to High-Performance Distribution Engine, Driving Efficiency through Digitalisation, Technology and AI’, delegates examined the commercial, operational and safety foundations required for resilient logistics operations. It convened decision-makers from across warehousing, transport, technology and services. Mihlali Gqada, Freight Specialist at the Department of Transport, directed the programme.

Mihlali Gqada, Freight Specialist at the Department of Transport 

“This conference put practical collaboration at the centre of the conversation,” commented CILTSA President Elvin Harris. “Our sector can strengthen South Africa’s supply chains when we connect people, data and operational discipline, then turn insight into sustained action.”

Warehouses As a Strategic Engine

Clayton Thomas, Managing Director of Industrial Logistic Systems, opened the half-day programme by setting out why warehouses have become essential to national supply chain resilience. “Good enough no longer carries an operation through rising customer expectations and network pressure,” Thomas pointed out. “Every warehouse has an opportunity to become a responsive distribution engine that protects service, strengthens resilience and creates value.”

Clayton Thomas, Managing Director of Industrial Logistic Systems 

Brian Mudhokwani, Chief Operating Officer at ISB Optimus, focused on the three performance gauges of cost, throughput and accuracy. He encouraged delegates to measure a priority metric with greater rigour and use the resulting insight to guide improvement. “The warehouse is an engine, and cost, throughput and accuracy are its instrument panel,” Mudhokwani said. “Choose one gauge, measure it properly and use that evidence to improve the decisions your team makes every day.”

Brian Mudhokwani, Chief Operating Officer at ISB Optimus

His presentation addressed the value of disciplined warehouse management systems, quality data and connected planning. It also highlighted practical applications for AI, including pick-path optimisation, slotting decisions and predictive insights embedded in workflows.

Flow, Safety and Connected Intelligence

Gerhard van Zyl, Group Operations Director at Professional Group of Companies, examined tactical flow and floor control. He showed how walking, waiting, searching, rehandling and queueing can erode productive time across a facility. “Warehouses achieve more when they design for movement and remove friction,” van Zyl said. “The key question for leaders is why work stops, because every interruption adds cost, absorbs capacity and affects the customer promise.”

Gerhard van Zyl, Group Operations Director at Professional Group of Companies

Greg Naicker, Vice President Operations at Powerfleet, connected safety performance with productivity, uptime and delivery reliability. His session demonstrated how real-time visibility, operator and asset guardrails, AI video and integrated dashboards can identify emerging risks and support proactive decisions.

“Safety data becomes operational intelligence when leaders can see risk patterns across the warehouse, yard and road,” Naicker said. “Connected systems give teams the chance to prevent disruption, protect people and sustain reliable delivery.”

Greg Naicker, Vice President Operations at Powerfleet

The conference closed with a shared commitment to stronger, data-led warehousing capability across South Africa. Delegates left with practical priorities for improving visibility, controlling flow, strengthening safety and building dependable performance.

“CILTSA will continue creating forums where the profession can exchange expertise and advance the capabilities that modern logistics demands,” concluded Harris. “The energy in the room showed that our industry is ready to build smarter, safer and more connected operations together.”

The event was powered by ISB Optimus and Powerfleet and captured expertly by Tendai Mhlanga Photography.

For further information about CILTSA and its professional events, please contact CILTSA.

From L – R: Clayton Thomas, Greg Naicker, Mihlali Gqada, Gerard Van Zyl and Brian Mudhokwani

Spend a morning around Gqeberha’s industrial areas and you’ll quickly notice the constant movement of trucks, containers and delivery vehicles. Components arrive at manufacturing plants, finished products leave distribution centres and freight moves steadily between warehouses, factories and the port.

Most of that activity happens quietly in the background, yet it’s one of the reasons Gqeberha has remained one of South Africa’s most important manufacturing and logistics hubs. While the city’s port and automotive industry often receive the spotlight, warehouses are the link that keeps everything connected.

They’re where products pause briefly before moving to the next stage of the journey, helping businesses manage inventory, support production and keep goods flowing across the country and into international markets.

Keeping Production Moving

Few industries illustrate the importance of warehousing better than automotive manufacturing.

Companies such as Volkswagen Group South Africa and Isuzu Motors South Africa rely on thousands of components arriving from suppliers throughout South Africa and abroad. Those parts don’t move directly from a truck onto an assembly line. They pass through warehouses where they’re received, checked, organised and made available exactly when production requires them.

The timing matters. If a critical component isn’t available when it’s needed, production can slow down or even stop. Warehouses help prevent those interruptions by ensuring parts are in the right place before they’re called for, allowing manufacturing to continue with as little disruption as possible.

More Than Somewhere to Store Stock

The idea of a warehouse filled with rows of products waiting to be collected no longer reflects how many modern facilities operate.

Walk through a busy warehouse today and there’s constant activity. Deliveries are arriving, products are being inspected, orders are picked, pallets are wrapped and trucks are loaded for the next destination. In some facilities, goods spend only a short time inside before moving on again.

That pace reflects the way supply chains have changed. Businesses want inventory that keeps moving, not stock that sits idle. The warehouse has become an active part of the supply chain, helping businesses respond more quickly to customer demand while maintaining greater control over inventory.

Why Gqeberha Makes Sense

Location has always influenced where businesses choose to invest in warehousing, and Gqeberha offers several advantages.

The city connects manufacturers with the Port of Gqeberha, national road networks and customers across South Africa. Agricultural products from the Eastern Cape, imported goods arriving through the port and locally manufactured products all move through the city’s warehousing network before continuing their journey.

For many businesses, that proximity reduces unnecessary handling, shortens transport distances and creates greater flexibility when demand changes.

Quietly Supporting the Local Economy

Warehouses don’t only support manufacturers. Retailers, food producers, distributors and exporters all depend on facilities that can receive goods, manage inventory and dispatch orders efficiently.

Whether it’s automotive components heading to an assembly plant, citrus from the Sundays River Valley preparing for export or consumer products making their way to retailers around the country, warehouses play a part in keeping those supply chains moving.

It’s a role that often goes unnoticed because, when everything is working as it should, the warehouse simply becomes another link in a much larger network.

Behind every container leaving the port, every truck departing a distribution centre and every product arriving on a shelf is a warehouse that helped make the journey possible. It may not be the most visible part of Gqeberha’s logistics industry, but it’s undoubtedly one of the most important.