Third party logistics (3PL) firms now rent more warehousing space in India than any other type of tenant. CBRE reports that 3PL players took 40 to 50 percent of all industrial and logistics leasing between 2021 and 2024, and more than 30 percent in the first half of 2025. Colliers India puts their share at about 32 percent of Grade A demand over the same six months.
Four forces sit behind this lead:
- Fast growing ecommerce
- Warehouse consolidation after GST
- A clear preference for leasing over owning
- Pressure to win the last mile
The takeaway for any brand is simple. Handing your warehouse to a skilled partner is no longer a niche choice. It is how modern supply chains grow.
Midnight on the Bhiwandi Road
Leave Mumbai after dark and drive toward Bhiwandi. The city lights thin out. The sheds begin.
Long grey roofs stretch across the horizon. Trucks idle at loading bays. Forklifts glide between racks while most of the city sleeps, moving pallets of shampoo, phone chargers, tiles and medicines.
Here is the twist. The people running most of these sheds own none of the goods inside them. They are 3PL operators, hired to store, pack, label and ship stock for brands that would rather spend their energy on products and customers. Quietly, over five short years, these firms have become the biggest occupiers of warehouse space in India.
The Current Landscape: What the Numbers Say
India’s leading property consultancies track this market closely. Their findings point in one direction.
CBRE: 3PL is the single largest demand driver
CBRE’s report, Built to Scale: How 3PL is Solving India’s Supply Chain Puzzle, names 3PL players as the largest source of demand for warehousing and logistics space in the country.
- 2021 to 2024: 40 to 50 percent of total leasing
- First half of 2025: more than 30 percent of total leasing
- Big box deals: 3PL firms led leasing of spaces above 100,000 sq ft, by both volume and value
Colliers India: A record first half
Colliers India’s H1 2025 data shows a market in full stride. Leasing across the top eight cities reached about 20 million sq ft, a 33 percent rise year on year. The second quarter alone recorded roughly 11 million sq ft, the strongest quarterly absorption in several years.
3PL players held the top spot again, driving about 32 percent of Grade A warehouse and industrial shed uptake. Large deals above 200,000 sq ft made up about half of all demand. Most of those big deals came from 3PL firms.
Supply kept pace. Developers delivered around 19 million sq ft of new space in the same six months, and vacancy held steady at 13.5 percent.
JLL: A base that keeps expanding
JLL’s numbers show how fast the foundation has grown. Total warehousing stock across Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Pune rose 12.8 percent to 371 million sq ft in a single year. JLL linked much of the fresh demand for Grade A and Grade B facilities to 3PL tenants.
Where the space is going
CBRE’s city split for 3PL leasing since 2021 reads like a map of India’s consumption engines:
- Delhi NCR: 25 percent
- Mumbai: 24 percent
- Bengaluru: 16 percent
Add Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad, and these six cities account for nearly 70 percent of all 3PL leasing.
Mumbai deserves a closer look. Bhiwandi logged 3.1 million sq ft of warehousing uptake in H1 2025, the highest of any micro market in the country. Oragadam in Chennai came second at 1.5 million sq ft. Bhiwandi more than doubled it.
The Why: What Is Pushing Brands Toward 3PL
Numbers this large need a reason. Five stand out.
1. Ecommerce changed what “fast” means
Shoppers now expect orders in a day or two. Returns must be painless. Meeting that promise means placing stock close to buyers, picking accurately and processing returns quickly. Few brands can build that muscle alone. A 3PL can, because it spreads the cost of space, people and systems across many clients under one roof.
2. GST redrew the warehouse map
Before GST arrived in 2017, many companies kept a small godown in almost every state to manage tax rules. GST removed that reason. Businesses began closing scattered sheds and moving stock into fewer, larger, better located hubs.
Bigger hubs need expert operators. That gap is exactly where 3PL providers stepped in.
3. Leasing beats owning
3PL firms want to grow without locking cash into buildings. CBRE found that more than 60 percent of India based 3PL players prefer leasing space in multi tenanted buildings over the next 24 months. Only 28 percent favored build to suit projects, and just 22 percent wanted to buy existing assets.
The logic is plain. Leasing lowers upfront cost, offers proven infrastructure and lets a firm expand quickly when a client’s volumes jump.
4. The last mile is the costly mile
The final leg of delivery is often the slowest and most expensive. So 3PL firms are moving hubs nearer to where people live and shop. CBRE expects more of them to open local hubs in Tier II and Tier III cities, where consumption is climbing and land costs far less.
5. Demand from almost every sector
This is not only an ecommerce story. Colliers India reported strong uptake from engineering, ecommerce and automobile firms, each taking 10 to 20 percent of Grade A space. Every sector brings its own demands:
- FMCG: high volumes and quick stock rotation
- Pharma: careful storage and full traceability
- Electronics: secure handling of costly goods
- Automotive: thousands of spare parts tracked piece by piece
Technology ties it all together. CBRE found that about 76 percent of 3PL firms are adopting warehouse management software. Many also use IoT sensors, conveyor systems and goods to person picking to cut errors and lift speed.
How Kusshal Loggistics Delivers in Mumbai and Across India
All of this data leads to one practical question. Who should run your warehouse?
Kusshal Loggistics answers with scale, structure and a promise that is easy to measure. As an established 3PL logistics company in India, the team takes charge of your stock from the moment it arrives until it reaches your customer.
One rule behind every order
Every job follows the same standard. The Right Product reaches the Right Customer at the Right Time in the Right Condition. Each service exists to keep that promise.
What you get
Warehousing and ancillary services. Kusshal Loggistics takes warehouses on long lease and stores your physical stock inside them. You get the space without owning the building.
Value added services. Your goods leave ready for the shelf or the doorstep.
- Packing
- Kitting
- Barcoding
- Labelling
- Invoicing
- Reverse logistics and returns
Transport and distribution. Stock moves out in the company’s own GPS enabled fleet. You see where your goods are. No guesswork, no blind spots.
Warehouse consulting. This is where the team earns its “Warehouse Warriors” name. Many clients arrive with a problem warehouse. Stock goes missing. Orders ship late. Customers lose patience. Kusshal Loggistics audits the site, redesigns the layout and SKU handling, sets clear procedures for receiving and dispatch, and adds tracking and reporting. Fix the warehouse first. Then grow the business.
The numbers behind the promise
- 4 lakh sq ft of warehouse space under management
- 10,000+ SKUs handled
- 250+ employees on the ground every day
- A fully GPS enabled owned transport fleet
- 20+ locations across India
Rooted in the busiest corridor
As a trusted 3PL logistics company in Mumbai, Kusshal Loggistics operates across Mumbai, Bhiwandi and Navi Mumbai. That places your stock inside the very corridor that led the country in H1 2025 warehousing uptake, close to JNPT and the city’s main highways.
The network stretches well beyond the city, reaching Pune, Nagpur, Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot, Bengaluru, Chennai, Indore, Raipur and more.
Built for many industries
Whether you sell FMCG goods, electronics, fashion, pharmaceuticals, auto spare parts or construction materials, the team has handled stock like yours. Plumbing supplies, tyres, luggage and heavy machinery are on the list too.
Pricing that fits your operation
Storage, pick and pack, value added work and transport are each quoted on their own. Share your monthly volumes, SKU count and delivery locations, and you receive a proposal shaped around your business rather than a generic rate card.
What Comes Next for 3PL Warehousing in India
3PL firms are not a passing chapter in Indian warehousing. They are fast becoming its backbone.
Watch three shifts over the next few years. Growth will spread into Tier II and Tier III cities as consumption follows rising incomes. Warehouses will get smarter, with automation, sensors and software becoming standard rather than special. And more brands will hand over their stock to specialists so they can focus on products, pricing and customers.
The partners who win will pair good space with real skill. They will turn messy warehouses into orderly ones, move goods on time and report clearly at every step.
If your supply chain feels stretched, this is the moment to bring in a partner who solves these problems every day. Request a custom proposal from Kusshal Loggistics.
