A Plymouth branding and clothing company is set for a huge expansion which will create dozens of jobs after its new American owners promised a US$10m investment.
American e-commerce giant Trevco has acquired Estover-based Mandarin International Brands, already the leading licensed branded apparel company in the 海角视频, and has plans to grow the business even further adding another 30,000sq ft building to the five it already has in Estover, and open in central Europe too.
And the Sisna Park business, which has been renamed Trevco now it is part of the US company, will also be adding to its 130-strong city workforce.
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It is recruiting now for 25 staff and anticipates needing another 50 in 2022, across all aspects of the business from designers to warehouse staff and factory production operatives.
“The business will grow in the 海角视频 and in central Europe,” said Trevco founder Trevor George, visiting the Plymouth facility with Trevco president Daniel Leach. “We have made a commitment of a US$10m investment for expansion in the 海角视频 and across Europe.
“There are five buildings in this area already and we are looking at additional space, and in the next 12 months have another 50 people here in Plymouth.
“One more building in the 海角视频 would be sufficient but we envisage a second facility in central Europe. We hope a proportion of that US$10m will be spent next year.”
Mr George said the Plymouth factory currently produces only branded apparel, but will now follow Trevco’s expansion into branded homeware, drinkware, accessories and sleepwear.
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“We want to replicate all our non-apparel in the 海角视频,” he said.
Mandarin has grown from humble origins as a surfwear business in a portable cabin on a construction site in Valletort Road. Begun in 1992 it moved to Estover in 2006.
Even as recently as 2011 it employed only 19 people on a three-day week shift pattern. But in the past decade it has undergone huge growth under the stewardship of owners David and Angela Gower.
Its garment decoration facility, which produces branded t-shirts and sweatshirts, produces 30,000 to 40,000 items of clothing a week for bulk orders to large household-name retailers.
And on top there is a print-on-demand facility, which creates single items, typically for customers who order online.
Customers include Vispring, FIFA, Team GB, the Eden Project, ASOS, Marston’s and Fuller’s, while brand partners also include Guinness, Universal, Pepsi, Ford, BSA and the bands Pink Floyd and AC/DC.
It can produce batches of 500 t-shirts a time for Disney and is the only factory producing Nike branded shirts in the 海角视频, for example.
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The firm works with brands to design garments and then manufactures and distributes them, with Matthew MacKay, sales director and general manager, saying this vertically integrated, turnkey solution for brand partners being a major part in the business’ success.
“We are the fastest to market and have grown 40% year on year,” he said. “Trevco has seen that and acceleration will now be incredible, and not just because of the finance from Trevco, but their experience too. It’s very exciting for the future.”
Mr Gower will stay on to ease the integration and said: “It’s very pleasing to see the growth - and sustainable growth. With Trevco backing the group we have the opportunity to grow across the 海角视频 and Europe.
Trevco started in business more than 30 years ago as a traditional licensed clothing company but became the first in the US to embrace print-on-demand in 2007.
Since then it has become the biggest e-commerce licensed product company in the USA, with about 300 people working at its location in Detroit and Salt Lake City. It has come to dominate the e-commerce market in the USA through its technology-driven innovation.
Trevco produces 300 types of product and five millions actual products for more than 1,200 licensing partners in sectors such as culture, entertainment, music, education, sports and esports.
These licensing partners include Disney, Showtime, 20 th Century Fox, Marvel, the US Army, Honda, Atari, Loony Tunes, Nickelodeon, NASA, CBS, NBC and entertainment household names including Jurassic World, Aliens, Star Trek, Batman, Star Wars, and rock acts Def Leppard and Kiss.
It also creates and power prints on demand for brand stores on Amazon, Walmart, and owned and operated sites for hundreds of brands.
It has an in-house digital agency called Blue Wheel Media, which employs more than 40 people and has enabled Trevco to become “an e-commerce powerhouse in the licensing industry”.
It was named by the Inc 5000 guide to America’s top companies as the nation’s fastest growing and Mr Leach said: “In the States we have scaled to unprecedented levels.”
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Mr George said that when Covid hit the USA it posed a problem for companies supplying bricks-and-mortar retailers, but provided an opportunity for e-commerce enterprises.
“We were one of the only companies that doubled in size,” he said. “That was because we served e-commerce.”
And when Mr and Mrs Gower were looking towards retirement Trevco bosses realised Mandarin was the perfect firm to invest in.
“When I became aware of Mandarin it was like deja vu,” said Mr George. “It reminded us of what we were five years ago when e-commerce was starting to build in the US.”