Current warehouse is not huge, but just under 5000 squares with so much wasted space. The idea is to reduce the size down to around 3500 excluding offices and manufacturing etc and to actually turn it into a 10 000 square storage facility using racking by going 4 layers high.
This morning I was at the warehouse to start the stock take which I postponed till tomorrow morning. Roughly 10 minutes after these photographs were taken the heavens opened up and the power went off which made moving around in the now dark warehouse hazardous let alone trying to count.
I thought I would give you an idea and share with you what is planned for the new businesses which will start at the end of this month. In the first photograph the empty area in the foreground is the size we are giving back to the landlord to reduce the monthly rental. there is more to the side that opens up into a warren of offices and cutting the rental costs by 33% makes financial sense right now.
The side we are keeping and hoping the 3500 squares will be enough to get by for now. I will need to secure more racking at some point, but have another 400 meters worth not visible here that needs to still be erected. Racking is not cheap and have accumulated most of it over the years doing deals. This will be for the pick and pack operation we will be running.
This room off the main warehouse will be solely for the manufacturing of punch bags and everything that you see here will be gotten rid of by then. I have a standing monthly order to manufacture and will be looking to expand those numbers. This room has been more of a dumping room up until now with customer returns etc. Notice only 1 light is working and the puddle on the floor from the overnight rains. The warehouse is no beauty and could do with a major upgrade, but it fits my budget and that is what is important. Other warehouses can be as much as 3 x what I am paying and realized very quickly how lucky we are.
Another room that looks a mess which will be the trampoline room where mats are cut and spares are kept. There are two rooms off the side for seamstresses to work uninterrupted. This is actually a decent business on it's own and have seen them with back orders of over 200 mats at any given time. Ordering rolls of material correctly will solve this and providing a proper service will only grow this side of the business. This is a proper money printer plus we can manufacture for overseas now we are listed on Amazon.
This will become the show room/retail shop where returns will be sold off at discounted prices. We will be importing our own lines as well so they will be online and also in the show room.
As you can see there is still a bit of work to accomplish before the end of the month, but we don't want to show our hand too soon transforming the business before we have taken over. That has crossed my mind already and very conscious of the fact I know how good this business really is and why I need to hold off. The behind the scenes work first like cutting the monthly expenses all lined up to start on the 1st of February is what can be done now. These photos are the before and will share with you later the after revealing what the space has been turned into. This warehouse will never be a beauty queen and will be more like a pig with lipstick, but it will function and serve it's purpose.
The warehouse rental was one of the biggest expenses along with transportation which I have seriously reduced by getting the correct pricing. If you don't now the real costs involved in logistics you will literally be taken for a ride and some so that has now been rectified. This business project is me in a nutshell knowing my figures and using years of experience having no concerns what so ever as it will be successful.
