Easy Bathrooms has completed its move to a new 330,000 sq. ft. headquarters at Calder Park in Wakefield.
The purpose-built site is said to lay the foundations for ongoing expansion. Since 2018, the brand has grown by 50% year-on-year and in 2023, turnover will top £105m as the Yorkshire-founded company has its sights set on becoming the UK’s number one bathroom supplier.
Construction on the new facility began in 2021. It has the capacity to store £100m worth of stock across 63,000 pallets, doubling its current volume. The facility also houses Easy Bathrooms’ same day click and collect counter and a brand-new clearance outlet where customers can pick up a bargain.
Designed to optimise logistics, the site has 75km of Very Narrow Aisle (VNA) racking, which utilises the latest technology. Compacted into a very small area – which isn’t accessed by foot – it creates a high-density storage system that increases capacity by 40% without expanding the space. Specialist fork trucks then take advantage of an Auto Positioning System (APS), meaning operatives can input the coordinates of a product and the truck will guide them by radio frequency ID wires to the correct position.
The site also has a £1.8m sprinkler system, high security biometric access, an energy efficient heat recirculation system, 382 parking spaces, 80 bike spaces, 10 electric vehicle charging points and 2,000 m2 of office space for 240 head office staff.
Founder, Craig Waddington, said: “Having grown up in Huddersfield and coming from a humble background, it’s sometimes difficult to believe what my team and I have built – an organisation that provides employment for 700+ people and supports thousands even more across our supply chain.
“The retail industry, and the bathroom sector in particular, has struggled over recent years, with the closure of 17,000 chain stores in 2021. We are proud to buck this trend and continue with the opening of our bricks and mortar showrooms, underpinned by the new HQ.
“We will be able to offer better experiences for customers across delivery, product choice and service, and we look forward to unlocking even further growth.”
In 2022, Craig was named as one of The Times’ Most Ambitious Business Leaders, and Easy Bathrooms was ranked in the Febe Growth 100.