The drop shipping business, which was founded in 2013 by Latvians Davis Siksnans and Lauris Liberts, and is now headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, US, has signed leases for the circa-8,210sqm West Midlands site as well as another facility in Lodz, Poland.
Between them they are expected to create over 100 new jobs during the first year of operations.
Printful currently operates eight in-house facilities globally, three of which are in Europe – two in Latvia and one in Spain.
CEO and co-founder Siksnans said it has chosen the UK as its 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.”
The company said it is set to initially invest over $3m (£2.2m) in the new UK facility, which will start by providing services such as DTG (direct-to-garment), embroidery, and printing for home and living items, eventually adding other fulfilment options.
While information on the kit the company plans to use at the new UK site was unavailable at the time of writing, in March it revealed it would be adding “more than 50” Kornit Atlas systems during 2021 for DTG production on-demand.
This coincided with the company's addition of new production facilities in Los Angeles, Dallas, Charlotte, Mexico, Spain, and Canada, as well as the expansion of existing facilities globally.
Printful said the new UK site would enable it to provide local fulfilment and faster shipping times, with UK delivery taking around two business days.
Regional newspaper Express & Star reported today (19 July) that further details of the plans for the site had been revealed in a design statement that accompanied an application to Wolverhampton Council regarding the installation of 11 external flues on the facility’s roof.
The report said the site is currently undergoing a full refurbishment and that Printful “intends to take over the building from August 2021”.
Printful said its new Polish facility would improve its service speeds and enable it to continue expanding in European markets.
The company, which has grown to a team of over 700 employees in Europe and more than 1,800 people globally, said it is now actively hiring.
In 2020 the business achieved over $200m revenue. It has recently become the first unicorn company – valued at over $1bn – with Latvian roots, after it landed $130m investment from equity firm Bregal Sagemount in May.
