Cloud supply chain provider Stord has opened a new warehouse facility in Las Vegas, its fourth first-party warehouse facility and second in Nevada. The 177,238-square-foot facility will serve Stord customers in the Southwest and across Northern California.
Stord provides an end-to-end solution for shippers through a cloud-based platform connected to over 500 warehouses and 20,000 carriers. The company offers national warehouse capacity, digital freight shipping, an integrated logistics network and two-day fulfillment for e-commerce orders from anywhere in the U.S.
“We are laser-focused on making the supply chain a competitive advantage for every one of our customers by combining end-to-end logistics with integrated technology and cloud-like speed and flexibility,” said Sean Henry, CEO and co-founder of Stord. “Our Las Vegas facility will add much-needed warehouse capacity heading into what is widely expected to be the biggest e-commerce season ever. We are building out a hybrid logistics network to help brands of all sizes operate their supply chains with world-class efficiency.”
Stord also has first-party facilities in Atlanta, Georgia; North Haven, Connecticut; and Reno, Nevada. The entire Stord network now includes over 500 partner warehouses across the country. The Las Vegas location will officially open on Nov. 1.
With e-commerce holiday sales expected to grow around 12% this year, shippers are increasingly looking for warehouse space. Prologis (NYSE:PLD), one of the largest global commercial real estate firms, managing over 995 million square feet of logistics space, said during its Q3 earnings call last week that “space in our markets is effectively sold out.”
Global e-commerce is set to surpass $5 trillion in 2021, while B2B online commerce is expected to reach $20.9 trillion by 2027. This growth is powering the warehouse capacity space crunch. There are more container ships off the West Coast right now than ever before, and even if that merchandise can be offloaded, there is little available warehouse space to store it.
A summer survey of 720 logisticians in 43 countries found that 74% of them expect warehouse capacity demand to increase 5% annually through 2024, and 28% of those believe it will exceed 20% during that period. E-commerce is a primary driver, with 71% expecting demand from e-commerce to grow significantly through 2024. Much of e-commerce is fulfilled and shipped as parcels, and the global small parcel market is expected to increase from 103 billion parcels in 2019 to between 220 billion and 262 billion by 2026, according to an index published last October by technology and delivery firm Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE:PBI).
That is opening doors for companies like Stord that not only are bringing warehouse capacity online but doing so in a scalable format for shippers — allowing them to reserve only the space they need. Stord has been growing quickly, surpassing $100 million in revenue last year and achieving over 300% growth three consecutive years. Headcount has increased from 160 in 2020 to more than 400 this year, and the company has added several large clients, including Body Armor, DYPER and Thrasio to its customer list. The list also includes omnichannel brands Advance Auto Parts, Dollar General, Schneider Electric and Veritiv.
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Read: Warehousing’s newest unicorn: Stord reaches $1.1B valuation
Read: Stord rethinks the warehouse with Atlanta innovation hub
In August, Stord announced a 386,000-square-foot innovation warehouse in Atlanta. That facility is being outfitted with start-of-the-art fulfillment technology such as robotics and includes a section dedicated to innovation. Sean Henry, co-founder and CEO of Stord, told Modern Shipper the facility will continually test new technologies and designs to improve the fulfillment mission. The new Las Vegas facility will also include the latest in warehouse innovations, including robotics and other forms of automation.
Stord closed a $90 million Series D round of funding in September, surpassing the $1 billion mark in valuation. Total funding in the company is $205 million to date.
The funding round was led by Kleiner Perkins with additional participation from Lux Capital, D1 Capital and Palm Tree Crew, and existing investors, including BOND, Dynamo Ventures, Founders Fund, Lineage Logistics and Susa Ventures.
In addition, Stord announced the acquisition of Fulfillment Works, a direct-to-consumer fulfillment provider. Fulfillment Works has three warehouses — one in Reno, Nevada, one in North Haven, Connecticut, and one in Shelton, Connecticut. The company, which has been a family-owned business for more than 50 years, offers EDI order processing, logistics management services, warehouse management, inventory management and value-added services such as customer service and call center outsourcing and customized packaging services.
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