99 BUSINESS ADVICE if a business moves in to take up another company’s spare capacity (which may be because that company is overprovided, or because its peak requirements are at a different time of year) many of the operating costs, perhaps even including labour and IT, are already paid for, so the renting company is charged something closer to the marginal rate rather than the full cost. It can even be that facilities are available already equipped with levels of productivity-enhancing IT and automation that the business would struggle to resource or justify on its own account. However, the flexibility offered by a strategy that includes short-term lets isn’t just for Christmas. It can allow a supplier or retailer to experiment – with new product lines, with new regional markets or new customers, with new distribution chain architectures, with different blends and approaches to the physical store/ecommerce balance – at relatively little long-term risk. Such a strategy may even lead to semi-permanent arrangements: an understanding that the business is minded to take the same space for the same three months every year. Bis Henderson Space has many years of experience in helping companies ‘right size’ their peak space requirements, and then securing the right temporary space: right in terms of cost, location, and facilities, from bare sheds to space in fully-manned and equipped distribution centres.
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