A North East workwear company is creating 30 jobs as part of a three-year growth strategy to take turnover to £50m.
Durham-based Workwear Express has been kitting out staff at big-name companies including Greggs and Tesco since 1989 and investment in new technology and production capacity has seen expansion at a rapid pace.
Over the last 10 years the firm has more than doubled turnover as well as its workforce, and has now reported a 30% increase in turnover this year to £23m.
Founder Andrew Ward has now laid out a three-year plan for the firm, which supplies bespoke workwear, promotional clothing and PPE to all sectors including healthcare, industrial and hospitality, to take annual sales to £50m by 2023. The growth follows a spate of investment projects in 2019 including £4m for an additional 40,000sq ft manufacturing site next to its existing premises in Belmont, and the launch of its first retail outlet.
The clothing specialist has also invested £1.3m in new machinery in the past 12 months.
It has also made its first acquisition – a multi-million-pound deal to acquire rival brand Krowmark, based in Bognor Regis, West Sussex. The deal, which has been financed internally, saw Workwear Express acquire the firm after it ceased operations earlier this year.
Looking ahead, Workwear Express is set to make a series of new investments, including a £3m spend on a new tech platform and website, launching one of the 海角视频’s first progressive web apps in the sector, to improve the customer journey and the buying process.
The firm said the app has simplified how customers search for print and embroidered workwear products across its 9,500 customisable range, the largest in the 海角视频.
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The business is also recruiting for 30 new roles including sales staff and machinists, taking headcount to more than 200 and giving it additional capacity to fulfil growing demand.
Workwear Express has secured more than 100,000 new customers since the start of 2020 and has more than 500,000 customers of all sizes in multiple sectors across its e-commerce, corporate and international divisions. Mr Ward, chairman of Workwear Express, said: “We set out an ambitious growth strategy in 2018 with an aim to increase turnover by more than 20% year on year to 2023. We’re on track to deliver against this strategy, which is seeing us invest heavily to meet customer demand.
“Market appetite for our product range has remained high even throughout the lockdown period, owing to our diverse customer base. We’re now actively recruiting across the business, and our 50 new roles this year follows a similar recruitment drive last year, providing job security to our people in the tough economic climate.
“In addition to these investments we are also eyeing international expansion – with plans to launch in North America in the coming years.
“As a technology-led business in our sector we see a wealth of opportunity for us to disrupt markets internationally and build on our existing growth trajectory.”