News / Huboo
‘UK e-commerce brands are dipping their toes into EU water once again’
A year after making dozens of redundancies at their Corn Street headquarters, one of Bristol’s fastest growing companies is once again flourishing thanks to a resurgence of European trade.
Huboo has announced solid pan-European growth for 2023 where its shipment orders doubled in a 12-month period.
Its Netherlands fulfilment hub, which is celebrating its third anniversary in April, grew order shipments by 128 per cent, while the German hub, which celebrates its second anniversary this month, saw shipments increase by 123 per cent.
The e-commerce fulfilment firm was also given a boost in November when it raised £29m in an equity and dept funding round with HSBC and Blackrock, following a seventh successive year of strong growth, during which the business doubled in size, adding 800 new clients and more than £25m of new business.
“UK e-commerce brands are dipping their toes into EU water once again, using fulfilment partners such as Huboo,” says Huboo co-founder Martin Bysh – photo: Huboo
Speaking on the green shoots of recovery, Martin Bysh, co-founder and chief executive of the group, said: “Our latest European shipments data tells two stories.
“Firstly, that there is a massive pan-European growth opportunity available to e-commerce brands all over Europe.
“Secondly, that UK e-commerce brands are dipping their toes into EU water once again, using fulfilment partners such as Huboo to manage the burden on their behalf.
“We’ve worked hard to develop technology and processes that seamlessly manage the complexities of cross-border trade on behalf of all our clients, which we believe is the only way smaller e-commerce brands can compete.”
Huboo now has more than 1,400 clients worldwide – photo: Huboo
Huboo started in 2017 with just two safe storage lockers in Bath and has since grown to employ more than 700 people globally across the UK, Europe and the USA.
The logo of Huboo is not an unfamiliar sight in Bristol as it adorns the shirts of Bristol City, Bristol Bears and Bristol Flyers after it became the principal partner for all five of Bristol Sports’ professional teams in 2022.
Bysh added: “If you’re selling products on one channel, it’s relatively cheap to expand and sell across multiple channels, providing you’ve got the right inventory management software in place.
“This is the e-commerce opportunity in a nutshell, and our data and the conversations we’re having with clients suggest that appetite for cross-border trade is finally on the rise again.”
Huboo became the principal partner for all five of Bristol Sports’ professional teams in 2022 – photo: Fever Pitch
Main photo: Huboo
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