Online retailer The Very Group says it has moved all its clothes and footwear returns to its huge new warehouse near East Midlands Airport.
The business, which operates very.com and littlewoods.com, said it will be able to resell returned products within half an hour from the 850,000 sq ft Skygate building at the East Midlands Gateway warehouse park.
The online retailer said it has processed more than 750,000 returned items at Skygate since a three month-long migration from Raven Mill in Chadderton, Greater Manchester got underway in April.
The warehouse was already being used to process most Very orders prior to the returns department moving over.
The site has capacity for 500 permanent staff, supported by an extra 200 to 300 agency staff during peak periods.
Very said the relocation would bring benefits to its 4.5 million customers, with refunds being provided faster than before.
Non-fashion items, such as electrical appliances and tech products, which generally have low return rates and require specialist inspection, will continue to be processed in Greater Manchester.
The retailer is now gearing up for another busy build-up to Black Friday and Christmas.
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The fulfilment centre, which launched the day the first national lockdown began in March 2020, shipped 20 million items and 8.1 million orders in its first full year in operation, processing up to 256 orders per minute during the retailer’s busiest ever Christmas period in 2020.
Its automated sortation, selection, picking and packaging technology has orders ready for dispatch within 30 minutes of being placed by a customer – compared to around four hours at Very’s previous fulfilment centres.
The fastest order to date, processed during Black Friday 2020, was ready for dispatch in 18 minutes.
Phil Hackney, chief operating officer at Very, said: “Across the retail industry, clothing and footwear return rates tend to be higher than for other categories, but also simpler to process.
“Bringing them under the same roof as our fulfilment operation at Skygate, where they can benefit from our market-leading automated technology, makes perfect sense for our customers and our business.
“Faster refunds and making returned product available for re-sale more quickly will create an even better customer experience and support our continued growth as we head into the crucial Black Friday and Christmas periods.”
Skygate is now responsible for 95 per cent of Very orders, and houses six million items, processing 750,000 products every week.
The retailer said the site is helping it to meet its environmental obligations by taking a million miles of lorry movements off the road, reducing packaging waste and improving its heat, light and power footprint.