How Proactive Data & Deep Customer Engagement Shape Future-Resilient Warehousing

Bloom is an urban warehouse investment and development manager specialising in ultra-urban and last-mile logistics infrastructure across the UK. The business focuses on creating highly sustainable, design-led warehouse environments in dense city locations, helping modern businesses operate closer to customers while reducing congestion, delivery times, and carbon impact.

In this episode, co-founders Tom Davies and Sam McGirr explain how Bloom emerged from a shared belief that cities, consumer behaviour, and logistics networks are changing faster than traditional industrial real estate can adapt. Their backgrounds span institutional investment, development, and operational real estate, but both saw the same opportunity. Businesses increasingly need flexible, centrally located warehouse space that allows them to serve customers faster, operate more sustainably, and integrate operational and corporate functions more effectively.

The conversation explores the principles behind Bloom’s investment thesis and why the business has focused so heavily on “ultra-urban” warehousing in locations traditionally overlooked by the logistics sector. Tom and Sam explain how extensive occupier research shaped the company from day one, helping Bloom design assets around how businesses actually operate rather than relying on outdated assumptions.

We also discuss Bloom’s pioneering work delivering multi-storey urban warehouse schemes in London, and why they believe the model represents a major evolution for industrial real estate in dense cities. The discussion covers sustainability, smart building technology, operational efficiency, and the growing importance of customer engagement and service-led landlord relationships.

Throughout the episode, Tom and Sam offer a grounded look at how urban logistics is evolving, why sustainability and operational performance are increasingly interconnected, and what the future of industrial real estate may look like as cities continue to grow and densify.

Episode Chapters

00:00 Bloom’s origins and investment thesis
05:10 Tom and Sam’s backgrounds in real estate
12:20 Founding Bloom and identifying the urban logistics opportunity
18:45 Ultra-urban warehousing and occupier demand
24:30 Multi-storey industrial schemes and evolving warehouse design
31:10 Sustainability, ESG, and operational efficiency
37:50 Customer engagement and the future of occupier relationships
43:15 Research, innovation, and evolving market trends
49:35 Entrepreneurship, inspiration, and lessons from building Bloom

About Tom Davies
Co-Founder of Bloom. Tom leads the firm’s investment, development, and strategic growth initiatives across its urban logistics platforms.

Before founding Bloom, Tom spent five years at Segro working across development, leasing, asset management, and investment. He later joined startup accelerator Antler, where his experience exploring urban logistics helped shape Bloom’s original investment thesis.

About Sam McGirr
Co-Founder of Bloom. Sam oversees investment, occupier strategy, and operational growth across the business.

His experience spans office investment, development, and hospitality-led real estate in both the UK and North America. Sam brings a research-driven approach to understanding how occupiers use space and how urban logistics infrastructure is evolving.