What are the world’s largest warehouses?
As warehouse technology improves, companies are looking for ways to maximise efficiency by improving storage solutions and cutting down on space.
But what happens if the products you’re manufacturing or storing are larger than usual? Or the scale of your company is super-sized?
In this article we take a closer look at some of the world’s largest warehouses.
1. NASA Vehicle Assembly Building, USA
Built in 1966, the NASA Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) was used to assemble space shuttles for over 30 years. Part of the Kennedy Space centre, the VAB is the largest single story structure in the world and has a volume of 3,664,883 cubic meters.
The building was originally named the “Vertical Assembly building” as its initial use was to accommodate the assembly of the Saturn V rocket, it was later renamed to cover a variety of elements of shuttle construction.
2. Meyer Werft GMbH, Germany
Located in Papenburg, Germany, this family-owned shipyard was founded in 1795 for the construction of small wooden boats. As the company expanded, so did the ships they built and the space they required to build them, leading to the construction of the largest dry docks in the world.
Now used to construct luxury passenger ships, the docks have a combined volume of 167 million cubic feet to house the enormous vessels, making it the 5th largest building of any kind in the world.
3. Constellation Europe, UK
Home to 57 million bottles, Europe’s biggest wine warehouse is no small space. To put that in context, laid end-to-end, the bottles it houses would stretch over 9,000 miles, or from the UK to Australia.
With a footprint of 858,000 sq ft and a volume the equivalent of 14,000 double decker buses, as well as storing wine the Constellation Europe warehouse also bottles it at a rate of 800 bottles a minute to cut down the cost of bottle transportation to the plant.
Bigger business means bigger everything, including packaging solutions. Find out how we can help you.
4. Target Import Warehouse, USA
This import warehouse, located in Washington covers an area of 185,800 square metres, making it the fourth largest building in the world by footprint. The warehouse is used to distribute stock from overseas to local distributors, has a volume of 7.43 million m³ and is the largest of four warehouses Target owns.
As the world’s tenth largest retailer, by using these central import warehouses to store stock, Target prevents the 26 smaller regional distribution centres from being stretched beyond capacity.
5. Boeing Everett Factory, USA
Also in Washington is the Boeing Everett Factory. Opened in 1967 to assemble wide body Boeing aircraft, such as the 747, more than 1,400 747 airplanes have since been built on site. Due to the size of the products created, the warehouse is the largest building in the world by volume, at 13,385,378 m3.
The warehouse is so large that alongside the planes, it also accommodates a credit union, 6 coffee shops and cafes for its legion of staff. Interest in the centre is so high that visitors can take the ‘Future of Flight Aviation Center & Boeing Tour’ to see the space in action.
6. Tesco Distribution centre, Ireland
Formed in an East London market in 1919, Tesco has become a household name and has over 2,975 stores in the United Kingdom, with 137 in the Republic of Ireland. The largest of Tesco’s distribution centres was completed in 2007, at a cost of €70 million and houses 600 employees in its 70,000 square metre footprint.
The centre handles and distributes all Tesco ambient grocery products and uses its own bespoke Distribution Management System linking Tesco’s supply chain together and allowing 1.5 million cases to be processed per week. Placed end to end, the racking used in the centre would be a length of 15.6km.
Enhance your warehouse efficiency
Whether you have a large or a small warehouse, you still will want to utilise all of the available space. At Marpak we offer tailored packaging solutions to enable you to store more items in your warehouse whilst also enabling easy, effective and efficient transportation of your goods. Our range of high quality polythene films and sheetings and pallet covers means your products can be securely wrapped and minimise the risk of damaged goods, you can find out more about our products here.
