Expanding warehouse operations as a fashion brand : a case study about the motivating factors and challenges

Abstract: Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are currently achieving massive growth but the problems and challenges associated with them are less understood. A goal in supply chain management is to maintain a solid flow of goods from raw materials to manufacturers and distribution of the final product. In managing all of these moving parts, warehousing plays a vital and central role to streamlining the supply chain. Furthermore, expanding a firm’s business to one or more locations as trends in markets, and consumer demands are continuously changing has proven vital to succeed. Yet, there is under developed research in the are of geographical expansion as it pertains to warehouse operations as an SME. In understanding these challenges and motivations to expand, SMEs have a greater chance to succeed. This thesis uses a combination of the existing literature surrounding global warehouse expansion as well as a field study that was conducted to gain further insight into an SME that is currently undergoing a warehouse expansion in both Germany and the United States. The motives for expansion to these locations are explored through semi structured interviews of six employees involved in the warehouse project. There is great complexity in this case, where unfamiliar locations and market potential are unknown, making this sector within supply chain management of SMEs an important one to investigate.