Fulfilment group strikes out Stateside with California investment
Fulfilmentcrowd, the Chorley-based provider of fulfilment services and technology, has continued its international expansion with the opening of a new partner centre in California.
The modern 20,000 sq ft facility is strategically located in the City of Industry, Los Angeles, and within easy reach of west coast air, road and sea hubs.
With an established and proven business model in Europe, entry into the world’s second largest eCommerce market signals the Lancashire-based company’s ambitions, as sales and marketing director, Lee Thompson, explains: “US online sales in 2018 reached $500bn and that figure is forecasted to grow by 45% to a whopping $725bn over the next five years.
“It is our largest export market and to make best advantage our customers need to be ‘in country’ to ship for next day delivery and to offer low-cost, fast returns.”
He added: “The LA facility operates on the same platform and management systems as our European centres, which means clients can run a world-scale business, across multiple channels, currencies and locations from a single login.”
While technical operations will continue to be managed from the company’s UK headquarters, fulfilmentcrowd Inc joins the group structure and will be responsible for all operations in North America.
The Canal Place centre is the ninth to ‘join the crowd’, but it will not be the last, said Lee Thompson: “Country-by-country we are creating a world network and business model that, in terms of scale and accessibility, is unprecedented in the eCommerce fulfilment sector.
“Our customers are entering new territories with system control, mitigated risk and confidence, supported by the expertise of our partners ‘on the ground’ who reciprocate daily across the globe – for example, our German centre is currently helping a US client to enter the local market, whilst three European clients already have stock en route to our new site in Los Angeles.
“This is truly 24/7 eCommerce without bounds.”
