Key Takeaway: A warehouse relocation should start with a comprehensive plan, not just a moving date. The new building needs to be assessed in terms of usable storage capacity, workflow, forklift access, safety and future growth, not just in square metres. Do not assume your existing pallet racking can simply move with you. It may need to be reviewed, modified, replaced or supplemented with new or second hand racking. The earlier you involve the right people, the better chance you have of avoiding delays, downtime, extra costs and a warehouse that is inefficient once you move in.
Planning a warehouse relocation is not just a matter of finding a bigger shed and moving everything across.
That is usually where people start. They have outgrown their current space, the stock is building up, the aisles are getting tighter, pallets are sitting where they should not be, and someone eventually says, “Right, we need to move.”
But the move itself is only one part of the exercise.
What really matters is whether the new facility is going to give you a better storage outcome, a better workflow, better access, better safety and enough room to grow into the next stage of the business. If those questions are not asked early enough, you can move into a larger building and still end up with a warehouse that does not quite work.
The number one piece of advice is to start early. Start as early as you possibly can.
If you were moving house, you would not call a removalist on the Friday and expect them to turn up on the Monday. Warehouse relocation is much the same, except the equipment is bigger, heavier and more complicated. There is transport, logistics, pallet racking, forklifts, layout design, safety, stock movement, staff access, loading areas and a whole range of other things that have to come together for the outcome to be right.
For some larger clients, the relocation planning process can run for 12 to 18 months. They may have already secured a building that is not even finished yet. It might still be under construction. At that point, they will come to us with a floor plan and ask, “Can you look at this? What sort of racking configurations can we achieve? How much stock can we hold with one design versus another? Would we need a different forklift to get a better outcome?”
That is the ideal scenario because there is enough time to ask the right questions before things become urgent.
Sometimes businesses are almost shopping for a building and they will come to us with two options. One building might look good from a rental point of view. Another might give them a better storage outcome. One might have better access for forklifts. Another might have better height. One might have columns or awkward corners that interfere with the layout. So we can go through a quick design process and say, well, that building is better from this perspective, but that one might be better from another.
That is where warehouse relocation planning can really make a difference. It helps a business avoid committing to a building that looks suitable on paper but does not work properly once racking, stock and forklifts are brought into the picture.
The New Building Has To Be Judged By Usable Storage, Not Just Floor Space
One of the common traps is looking only at square metres.
A warehouse might be bigger than the one you are leaving, but that does not automatically mean it gives you more usable storage capacity. The roof height might be better, which means you can go higher with your racking. Or the columns might be in awkward places. The floor might not suit the weight you want to store. The dock access might be poor. The forklift might not have enough turning space. The emergency exits, fire hose reels, stairs, windows or pedestrian walkways might limit where racking can go.
Those things are not small details. They change the whole design.
If the new building is taller, your old racking might suddenly be too short. You might be able to hold far more stock in the same footprint if you install higher frames or change the forklift to suit narrower aisles or a higher lift height. On the other hand, if your product range has changed, your old racking might not suit the new operation at all.
That is why the question should not just be, “Can we move our racking?”
The better question is, “Should this racking move with us, and will it give us the best outcome in the new space?”
Sometimes it will. Sometimes it can be modified. Sometimes it should be replaced. Often second hand racking gives the client a good value option, particularly if they are trying to control the cost of the relocation. But the decision has to be based on the new facility, the stock profile, the load requirements, the forklift, the aisle widths and the direction the business is trying to go.
A successful relocation should not just be moving old problems into a new building.
Walk Through The Existing Warehouse Before You Design The New One
A proper warehouse relocation plan should start with a slow walk through the current facility.
Not a quick glance. A proper walk through.
Look at what is working. Look at what is not working. Look at the way goods come in, where they are stored, how they are picked, how they are packed, how they leave, where the congestion happens and where staff are constantly working around problems.
That process usually stimulates the right discussion. The operators of the warehouse often know exactly what frustrates them. This can be things like:
- Which aisles are too narrow
- Which stock is always in the wrong place
- Which items are slow moving
- Which products should be closer to dispatch
- Where things become unsafe when the warehouse gets busy
At an early stage, it may only be a pencil sketch. That is fine. You are just trying to understand the current operation and what has to change. If the move is more immediate, then a site meeting becomes even more important. We want to walk through the facility, see what the warehouse people like about the current site, what they do not like, and what can be improved in the new one.
That might include pallet racking, longspan shelving, mezzanine areas, packing benches, forklifts, conveyors, machinery, overhead cranes or specialist equipment. In some industrial sites, you may have an overhead crane moving steel and other heavy objects. You cannot simply put racking wherever you like if that crane needs clear travel. In other sites, it might be fire hose reels, emergency exits, pedestrian walkways, windows or stairs that need to be kept clear.
These are practical things, but they matter to the warehouse layout design.
Sometimes clients are so keen to get maximum storage capacity into a facility that they overlook the safety aspects. That is where we have to step in and say, well, that is not advisable.
You can want more pallet spaces, but you still need safe access, safe forklift movement, clear exits and a layout that people can actually work in.
Allow Time For The Design To Change
A good warehouse layout is rarely finished in one attempt.
In some cases, we can have floor plans that get up to version 5, 7 or even 10 before the final version is settled on. That is not a bad thing, it usually means the right questions are being asked.
Different people inside the business will have different views; the warehouse manager may want one thing, the owner may be looking at growth, the operations team may care about picking speed, the forklift operator may know that a certain corner is going to be a problem, the sales team may be promising faster dispatch and the finance person may be looking at the budget.
Sometimes there can be too many cooks in the kitchen, so to speak, but it is still healthy to have that debate. You want everyone to buy into the final outcome.
The problems usually happen when there is not enough time for that discussion. Everything gets compressed. Decisions are made on the hop. Details get left behind. The business moves in, starts operating and then realises the warehouse has not achieved the outcome they were hoping for.
That is frustrating because many of those issues could have been addressed earlier.
More time gives you more room to test the layout. It gives you time to look at different racking configurations. It gives you time to decide whether the existing racking can be reused, whether more storage capacity can be achieved, whether the forklift needs to change, and whether the new design will still make sense in three or five years.
Many businesses are not just moving because they need more space today. They are moving because they want to get to the next stage of efficiency and productivity. If you design only for what the warehouse needs on day one, you may find yourself outgrowing it much sooner than expected.
Short Notice Moves Are Possible, But They Are Harder
Not every business has the luxury of a 12-month planning window.
Sometimes we get a call on the Monday saying, “I’m moving next week. Can you move our racking?”
That is a little bit more challenging.
Lead times do not always allow us to be quite that flexible. There may be stock availability issues, transport to organise, installers to schedule, scissor lifts to book, forklifts, floor plans, safety signs, engineering requirements or other trades involved. The more compressed the timeline becomes, the less room there is to properly review the options.
In the majority of cases, we are able to work something out. But the outcome is almost always better when there is more time.
A rushed relocation tends to become reactive. The business is trying to keep operating, staff are still picking orders, stock is being moved, racking is coming down, trucks are turning up, and decisions that should have been made weeks earlier are suddenly being made on site.
That is when costs can creep in, delays happen and when people start standing around waiting for answers.
Think About Stock, Not Just Racking
A warehouse relocation is also a stock exercise.
Before anything moves, the business should understand what stock it actually has, what needs to move, what should be cleared out, what is slow moving, what is obsolete and what needs to be accessible immediately at the new site.
There is not much point paying to move stock that should have been sold, scrapped or written off. There is also no sense burying fast-moving product at the back of the new warehouse because no one thought about pick flow before the move.
For businesses with seasonal stock, this becomes even more important. Retail and e-commerce businesses, for example, may have winter stock, summer stock, returns, promotional stock and stock for major sales events all flowing in and out at different times. A warehouse that works in a quiet month may not work at all during peak season.
That is why capacity is not just about how many pallets you can fit in. It is about whether the stock can move through the building properly.
Incoming goods need somewhere to land. Palletised stock needs to be stored safely. Picking areas need to be accessible. Packing areas need enough space. Dispatch needs to flow. Returns need to be managed. Forklifts and pedestrians need to be separated where possible.
If those zones are not thought through early, the new warehouse can become cluttered very quickly.
Forklifts Can Change The Whole Outcome
Forklifts are often underestimated in warehouse relocation planning.
The forklift you currently use may not be the best forklift for the new site. It might not lift high enough, need wider aisles than the building can comfortably provide and it also might limit the storage capacity you can achieve.
In some cases, changing the forklift can change the entire outcome. A different forklift may allow narrower aisles, higher racking or more pallet positions within the same building. That can be the difference between a warehouse that just fits and a warehouse that actually supports the next stage of growth.
But it needs to be considered early.
You cannot design the racking in isolation and then think about the forklift afterwards. The racking configuration, aisle width, lift height, pallet weight and product type all work together. If one part of that equation is wrong, the warehouse’s efficiency and safety can decrease.
Safety Cannot Be an Afterthought
Every relocation should include a serious safety review.
That includes the obvious things like emergency exits, fire hose reels and pedestrian walkways, but it also includes the way the racking is installed, the load capacity of the beams, the condition of the frames, the spacing of the aisles, forklift access, protection systems and whether the racking is suitable for the stock being stored.
When racking is dismantled and reinstalled, it needs to be put back correctly, be level, anchored correctly, have the right beam clips, correct safe working load signage and it needs to be suitable for the loads being placed on it.
This is particularly important when businesses are moving older racking or a mix of different racking brands. Over time, many warehouses end up with a bit of a magpie approach. They have collected different racking systems as they have grown, moved, expanded or bought whatever was available at the time. That can create problems when the business tries to relocate or bring everything into one new layout.
Some older racking may not have the right compliance information, some brands may be harder to support, some components may not be worth moving and some may not suit the new building at all.
Again, this is why the relocation should not be treated as a simple removal job.
It is a chance to check whether the storage system is still safe, practical and fit for purpose.
Get The Right People Involved Early
A warehouse relocation can involve more parties than people first realise.
There may be a racking company, a forklift company, a transport company, electricians, line markers, IT people, warehouse movers, builders, the landlord, the building owner, engineers, certifiers, safety advisers and internal staff who all need to be involved at different stages.
The earlier you know who needs to be involved, the easier it is to coordinate the move.
That starts with listing everything in the warehouse that has to move or be changed.
- Pallet racking
- Shelving
- Workbenches
- Forklifts
- Machinery
- Stock
- Packing areas
- IT systems
- Dispatch
- Charging points
- Safety barriers
- Signage
- Pedestrian walkways
- Anything fixed to the floor
- Anything that needs special handling
- And more
Once you know what is involved, you can work out who needs to be part of the process.
If you leave that until the last minute, you tend to find out too late that one supplier cannot make the date, one piece of equipment needs a longer lead time, or one part of the design needs approval before anything can proceed.
The Move Should Leave You Better Off
The whole point of relocating a warehouse is not simply to survive the move.
The goal should be to come out with a better operation:
- More capacity, if that is what the business needs
- Better workflow
- Better picking
- Safer access
- Less double handling
- Better use of height
- Better separation between people and forklifts
- A storage system that suits the stock profile
- A layout that can handle growth
That does not happen by accident.
It comes from starting early, walking the current site, understanding what works and what does not, reviewing the new building properly, testing the layout, involving the right people and giving the design enough time to evolve.
If you are relocating a warehouse, do not wait until the week before the move to ask whether the racking will fit.
By then, you are not planning. You are just reacting.
Contact QLD Storage Systems Today
If you are planning a warehouse relocation, talk to QLD Storage Systems as early as possible. We can review your current warehouse, look at the new floor plan, assess whether your existing pallet racking should move with you, and help you work out the best layout before the pressure of moving day takes over. The earlier those discussions start, the better chance you have of moving into a warehouse that gives you more capacity, better workflow, safer access and room to grow, instead of just shifting the same problems into a different building.
About Mennolt Regtien
Mennolt Regtien brings more than 20 years of hands-on experience in the storage and pallet racking industry in Australia, backed by a broader career spent helping businesses grow, improve productivity and solve operational challenges. Before moving into pallet racking and storage systems, he spent around 10 years consulting to small and medium businesses on growth and development, and earlier worked in venture capital and startups, including helping Australasian companies expand into Asian and US markets.
His experience helps him look beyond the racking itself to understand each client’s wider business goals, identify operational issues quickly, and recommend storage solutions that support both efficiency and future growth.
