The logistics world will continue to be in flux in 2025. Automation, digitalization and space efficiency are central. Simon Popelier, Innovation Manager at Logflow, looks back on 2025 and looks ahead to 2026. “We are launching our own label, the RPC, the ‘space performance certificate’. You can compare it with the energy performance certificate EPC, but for companies that work space-conscious and economically responsible.”
“A lot has happened in 2025 in terms of further automation and digitalization,” he says. “But at the same time you felt that there was a certain wait-and-see attitude. The global economy is under pressure, with everything that is happening in Ukraine and also in the United States. Many companies remain cautious.”
However, companies realize that they must continue to innovate to remain competitive. “Digitalization and automation can really help with this. A striking trend is that logistics automation is becoming increasingly accessible to smaller organizations. It is becoming much more flexible and scalable. Instead of large crane warehouses, we are moving towards smaller robots that work together in the warehouse. This allows companies to start on a smaller scale and grow later.”
This opens the door for SMEs, which in the past often dropped out due to budget or complexity. “Many SMEs are starting to realize that logistics automation is also feasible for them. You can start small and scale up in the long term. That is crucial if we want to remain locally efficient and competitive here.”
Growth in healthcare
In addition to SMEs, Logflow also sees clear growth in the healthcare sector. “Many hospitals are thinking about regrouping and centralizing their logistics processes. A concrete example is the project at AZ Maria Middelares. There we are looking at the construction of a central logistics platform in Nazareth. This will not only include warehouse operations, but also pharmacy operations: distributing and repackaging medication at patient level. Everything will be centralized in one logistics hub. Hospitals realize that logistics can no longer be hidden in a basement. By centralizing and working more efficiently, they can provide much better care. support.”
Popelier hopes for more economic stability by 2026, but at the same time he points to a structural problem that is becoming increasingly urgent: a lack of space. “In Belgium there is a shortage of available industrial sites. Companies with expansion plans must ask themselves how they can work as compactly as possible. With the smallest possible footprint, both for warehouse operations and production and the internal logistics flows in between.”
“That is one of our strengths at Logflow: on an average of 30% less surface area, we can still achieve efficiency gains of up to 30% for customers. This has led to our own label, the RPC, the Space Performance Certificate, which we recently launched. You can compare it with the energy performance certificate. Companies that work space-consciously, but economically responsible and with sufficient operational efficiency, can receive that label. Industrial estates are finite. If we want to boost the Flemish economy, we have to be smarter and learning to work more compactly. We want to focus heavily on this in 2026.”
