Central Warehousing Corporation to double revenues in 2 years, plans massive capacity expansion

Public warehouse operator Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) is planning to double its revenues in the next two years through capacity expansion in the warehousing space and a bigger play in third-party logistics (3PL) and domestic container business. The company posted annual revenues of ₹2,175 crore in FY23.

The country’s largest warehouse player by reach and land bank, CWC has about 115 lakh MT (metrictonne) capacity across warehouses in 465 locations across the country today. While 45% of the space (and revenues) are from the storage of agriculture products/food grains, the e-commerce sector accounts for another 20%. The rest is industrial products.

“We have a massive capacity expansion plan for this year and next year. We are adding about 47 lakh sqft of capacity, which will be the double of what we have added in the last two years. This is through our own capex. We have earmarked about Rs 1000 crores for this. This will be all Grade A (industrial capacity)” says Amit Kumar Singh, Managing Director, CWC.

The corporation is also looking at adding capacity through public-private partnerships (PPP). “And we are expecting the private sector to invest about Rs 1500 crore in the next two years for these PPPs, which will see the addition of about 120 lakh sqft Grade A warehouse capacity”, Singh says.

The Corporation is also planning to create a network of cold storages, with value-added services in the PPP mode. Singh says that CWC has identified 180 locations for this purpose. These locations are either production centres or consumption centres of perishable goods as the country doesn’t have an efficient cold storage network and there is a huge loss which takes place in fruits and vegetables.

Incidentally, the government is also planning to convert CWC into a company by amending the Warehousing Corporation Act, the statute under which CWC operates at the moment. The change in legal structure is expected to empower the company’s board and provide more flexibility in its mandate to face increasing competition in the warehousing and logistics space.