Print-on-demand specialist Printful is to invest £2.6 million in a new fulfilment centre in Wolverhampton, covering about 90,000 square feet.
The new Midlands base is one of two new facilities that it is building to support its expansion plans in Europe. The other is over 100,000 square feet of space in Lodz in Poland.
The two new sites, each creating about 50 new jobs in their first year of operation, will be in addition to its three existing European fulfilment centres – two in Latvia and one in Spain. Based in Charlotte in North Carolina, it has another five sites around the world.
Davis Siksnans, CEO and co-founder of Printful, said: “We chose the UK as our next location because it’s the largest e-commerce market in Europe.
“Printful has a loyal and growing base of customers in the UK who have anticipated our UK expansion for a while and we’re thrilled to finally do it.
“Additionally, it will allow us to significantly shorten shipping times within the UK, making it easy to reach many new customers.”
Founded in 2013, Printful has already grown to a team of over 700 employees in Europe and more than 1,800 people globally and continues to see an increasing demand for e-commerce and its fulfilment services.
The company is set to initially invest £2.6 million (over $3 million) in the UK fulfilment centre which it expects to be operational by the end of this year.
This facility will start by providing services such as DTG (direct-to-garment), embroidery and printing for home and living items but will eventually add other fulfilment options.
With local fulfilment, it will be able to offer faster shipping times, predicted to be around two business days for deliveries within the UK.
In Lodz, Printful is planning on initially investing over $2 million (£1.4 million) over the next few years. This facility will mainly focus on cut and sew services but will also add DTG and embroidery. Delivery within Poland will take one to two business days and only two business days to Germany, one of Printful’s key European markets.
Siksnans said: “Poland has increased their fashion and garment export by 104% over the last 10 years so to keep up with the increasing demand for cut and sew services, we chose Poland as our next location. Considering that Lodz is historically recognised for its well-developed textile and garment industry, our decision was based on workforce availability and market opportunity.”
Printful specialises in fulfilling and shipping customised clothing, accessories, and home and living items for online businesses. In 2020, it hit a revenue milestone of more than $200 million (£144 million).
printful.com
