ASOS defies recession with spectacular growth
November 8th 2010 The online retailer will open a new warehouse in Barnsley next year to cope with expected increase in international demand.
In the first half of the year, ASOS saw retail sales climb 50% to £131 million, with international retail sales growing by 120%.
The firm says it will maintain a strong UK core to serve fast growing international markets.
It appointed 197 new employees from April to September 2010 taking its total headcount to 1,161, including Unipart warehouse staff.
CEO Nick Robertson said: “Key to the success of our international expansion is the Barnsley warehouse project and I am pleased to report that this project is on schedule for commissioning in Spring 2011.
“This will have an initial sales capacity of £60m. Fully fitted, it will give us capacity for over £1bn of sales.”
Capital expenditure forecast in relation to the new facility is £20m during this financial year, with further expenditure of £13m in 2011/12 and £6m in 2012/13, dependent on future business growth.
Warehousing was the company’s second highest cost (almost £11m in 10/11) behind staff (almost £18m in 10/11).
The operating leverage delivered by the Group allowed it to lower warehouse costs as a percentage of sales from 10% of sales in H1 2009/10 to 7.9% during the reporting period. More articles from Handling & Storage Solutions: | 
