PropertyEU’s latest ranking of the leading logistics developers in Europe has thrown up a new winner.
For the first time since we launched our annual developers survey in 2012, Panattoni has grabbed the top spot and elbowed out Goodman Group which had previously held the lead for five years running.
The Warsaw-based company saw its volume of completed developments more than double to 2.7 million m2 between 2014 and 2016. A year ago, the company ranked third after Goodman and Prologis with a total volume of 1.1 million m2. Last year’s ranking was based on projects completed between 2013-15.
Panattoni Europe has claimed a place in the top 3 for several years, but this is the first time that it has taken the top spot in PropertyEU’s annual ranking of the leading logistics developers in Europe since we launched our survey. The European arm of California-based Panattoni Development Company has seen its portfolio almost quadruple in terms of completed projects in the past seven years. However, it saw the biggest rise in the past 12 months, with an increase of no less than 145%.
Huge users
Goodman pioneered Amazon’s first big box in Europe in 2006 and this name has appeared consistently in the overviews of its biggest projects in recent years. It continues to do so: the Sydney-listed developer is currently working on a development in northern France on behalf of the US e-commerce giant totalling over 100,000 m2.
But when projects developed on behalf of Amazon started cropping up more frequently in Panattoni’s submissions, it was clear that another big box player was in the making. Indeed, the Warsaw-based company has taken over some – although not all – of Amazon’s momentum, in particular in Central and Eastern Europe.
E-commerce players are huge users,’ Panattoni’s CEO Robert Dobrzycki told PropertyEU. ‘They have significantly helped lift our volumes.’ Amazon is the most visible example of the e-commerce growth story, but there are others, Dobrzycki said, pointing to Zalando, H&M and Inditex. ‘All of these players are expanding and increasing their logistics space.’
Together the three leading players in our ranking – Panattoni, Goodman and Prologis – account for 66% of all logistics developments completed in Europe in the past three years. Including the number four in our ranking, UK-based Segro, that figure rises to 76% – or just over three-quarters of the total.
Conspicuous by its absence
One name that is conspicuous by its absence in our ranking is Logicor, the European logistics unit of Blackstone which insiders say is due to be spun off or sold in the coming months if not weeks. While the company has amassed a huge platform in the last few years, it is not – yet - a player in development.
So far Southern Europe has not figured largely either in our overviews of major logistics developments. But change is afoot, we learned at a recent Investment Briefing on the region hosted by PropertyEU. Retail has been a success story in both Spain and Italy in recent years, but these countries need to catch up on online shopping and a lot more development is needed.
During the briefing, Maurizio Grilli of BNP Paribas Real Estate noted that Amazon has opened a hub near Milan and will soon open another near Rome. In other words, the trailblazing there has already begun.
Judi Seebus
Editor in Chief
