Reflections - Smart Warehouse Conference, Poznan, 26-27.05

I had the privilege to attend the Smart Warehouse Conference in Poznań on 26-27.05.  Thinking and talking warehouse automation in Poland, I drew the following reflection from the many conversations with Industry representatives during this event.

The general mood during the conference was bullish. Now however is the right time to engage into robust long-term visioning and strategising to take the right decisions.

Here is why:

1. The Polish Market for warehouse automation is ‘hot’ but not yet well understood. The logistics and warehousing industry accounts for approximately 5% of Poland’s GDP; warehouse space has exceeded 37MM m2 at the end of 2025, YoY growth is in the region of 6%. Enabling a greater understanding of the local market and its peculiarities and arriving at a practical segmentation that is relevant and specific to the polish market is key. This will require investment into local knowledge and building the local leadership capabilities to clearly and confidently articulate what the polish market needs.

   
   

2. Demographics are becoming a greater concern then ROI, providing a strong long term investment argument for warehouse automation. The polish population is shrinking and ageing. The 2024 fertility rate was 1.1 births per woman; the median age in the population is around 43 years. Eurostat reports that the polish population declined by -123k people in 2024. The population is predicted to decline by approximately -234k people per annum by 2060. The impact will be more strongly felt in already sparsely populated rural areas. This trend will significantly impact available labour pools and capacity flex critical for warehouse operations. Consequently, operators need to now analyse their capacity needs and build strong long term strategic plans to address these demographic risks.

   
   

3. Capacity flex remains critical operationally. During an ad-hoc poll, 59% of industry representatives (n=63) ranked capacity flexibility as the most important aspect of a modern warehouse; this was followed by operational stability (44%). This was echoed in conversations with sales teams across technology suppliers: customers ‘rather go big’ even if this was not viable from a cost point of view. Interoperability of different systems vs being ‘locked-in’ to a specific solution were raised as specific concerns and could present barriers to taking big investment decisions. This suggests that modular approaches or concepts like ‘robotics as a service’ may fill important niches in the market; real estate needs to likewise mirror these requirements.

   
   

4. Future people and leadership capabilities were not (yet) a distinct focus area. This is surprising, given the importance of operational stability. The elephant in the room: Engineering will be a critical future constraint. From a labour market point of view presentations did not raise this as a current constraint. However, against the backdrop of increasing warehouse automation in Poland, there was little evidence pointing towards companies anticipating and actively addressing a potential future skill gap that can have significant implications for operational stability. Engineers do not grow on trees and a current market preference for locally popular individual B2B contracts will not help an operator who needs to address a critical downtime immediately. Consequently, an industry-wide discussion and action plan based on strong future scenarios is needed. Industry needs to start now to build up the capabilities needed in five years.