Prioritise location relative to motorway corridors and major customer clusters, dock and racking capacity, WMS/API integrations for storefronts and carriers, picking and returns workflows, labour availability, SLAs for order cutoffs, and visibility/reporting for cost-to-serve analysis.

A Warwickshire location reduces road miles to central and northern markets and provides direct access to large national carriers and pallet networks, improving next‑day coverage and reducing parcel spend versus south‑east centric distribution.

Evaluate dock doors, pallet racking density, cross‑dock capability, handling equipment, inbound appointment systems, pallet network integrations, account management for routing, and invoice transparency for pallet and LTL movement.

Compare billing units (per pallet, per pick, per carton), storage tiers, minimum monthly charges, peak season surcharges, inbound/outbound handling fees, carrier passthroughs, and termination or volume‑change clauses to model true cost‑to‑serve.