An American toy company which has drawn interest from celebrities including Jessica Alba, Gigi Hadid and Helen Flanagan is opening its first UK distribution centre to streamline its growing UK sales base.
Lovevery is opening a hub at the vast Magna Park warehouse site near Junction 20 of the M1 at Lutterworth, in south Leicestershire.
It will be managed by warehousing specialist Bleckmann in a new 205,000 sq ft fulfilment centre at Magna Park – its fourth in the UK – which it has taken at Magna Park to serve UK, European and global clients. Bleckmann says that over time it expects to create up to 300 new jobs at the site.
In a press statement Lovevery said: “Having become a huge household name in the US and developed a large fan base among celebrities including Jessica Alba, Gigi Hadid, Ashley Graham, Millie Mackintosh, Helen Flanagan, Storm Keating and Kimberley Walsh, the team behind Lovevery is now quickly saturating the UK and European markets.”
Lovevery said its decision to join other recognisable brands at Bleckmann – including Gymshark – follows a $100 million fundraise last October.
Up until now Lovevery shipments into the UK have been processed via its European HQ in the Netherlands, but the business said that had been impacted by Brexit and Covid19.
It hopes the move to have all UK orders handled by Bleckmann will improve delivery times and cut shipping costs, and minimise “Brexit related-limitations which have caused delays and additional costs to date”.
Co-founder Jessica Rolph said: “Our early learning program has become an essential resource for parents in 30 markets worldwide.
“Our goal is to keep expanding, creating new products that serve children all over the word for more years of their early development.
“Our long-term vision is to support every part of the parenting experience throughout early childhood.
“We want to be truly accessible to as many families as possible.”
Lovevery, launched in the UK in 2020 with two products – The Play Gym and Block Set – followed by its Play Kits subscription system last August, which has more than 220,000 active subscribers and has shipped more than 1 million kits.
It said around a quarter of all orders now come from Britain.
The business was founded by Jessica Rolph and Roderick Morris in 2017 in the US, and its toys are designed in consultation with child development experts.
Reinardt Van Oel, chief operations officer Belgium & United Kingdom at Bleckmann: “We are proud to open the new site just 18 months after our first location in Magna Park.
“In the coming five months we will be working on the further fit out of this enormous building – it will result in expanding the total floor area to 550,000 sq ft. Part of the building has already been taken in use for the first client.”
