UKWA history

Established in 1944, when the Government of the day asked for representatives from warehousing companies to form a Committee to discuss the storage and distribution of food and materials in wartime Britain, the Association was originally known as the National Association of Inland Warehouse Keepers - a body formed to protect and further the interests of public warehouse keepers conducting businesses outside the major ports.

After the war, the name was changed in 1952 with the omission of the word "Inland" as many members by then were also operating facilities within the ports. In 1982, the British Public Warehouse Keepers Committee merged with the National Association of Warehouse Keepers, further strengthening the Association's representational base.

The Association celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 1994 and changed its name from the National Association of Warehouse Keepers to the United Kingdom Warehousing Association (UKWA).

Today UKWA is a well-respected Association which represents over 600 member companies who, between them, operate around 100 million sq ft of warehouse and distribution centre space from some 2000 locations across the UK.

The Association now embraces all companies that provide warehousing or other logistics support services in the supply chain. In other words, companies that undertake warehousing and logistics tasks but for whom such operations do not represent their core business can now apply for membership of UKWA.

Of course, the overwhelming majority of UKWA's members remain third party warehousing and logistics services companies, or 3PLs as they are perhaps better known, but the move to widen the Association's membership eligibility means that UKWA is now truly representative of the wider supply chain community.

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