Next spring, The Parently Group and its portfolio of brands – David Luke, Grass & Air and Juco – are set to relocate. CWB learns more about the company’s new site and what the expanded in-house capabilities mean for The Parently Group and its customers.

 

As many of you will know, The Parently Group can be found in Ardwick close to Manchester city centre at a site called Eco Works, but several contributing factors mean that this will soon change. Firstly, the company has grown considerably over recent years, expanding upon its flagship brand David Luke School Uniform with the addition of children’s wellingtons, accessories and outerwear brand Grass & Air in 2017, and kids’ activewear brand Juco in 2019.

With the current site being subject to plans for redevelopment, and The Parently Group seeking to expand its capacity while consolidating its teams and operations (the present site is split across four buildings), the answer to all of these issues pointed to one thing: time to relocate. Working with partners in commercial property, The Parently Group has secured a new site in Bredbury, Stockport, which meets all its needs and will facilitate the desired step-change in the company’s operation and service offering.

“We expect the move to be transformational for the business, offering us the opportunity to gain warehouse efficiencies and significantly increase our storage capacity as well as centralise our teams into one cohesive office space,” says CEO, Kathryn Shuttleworth. “We’re naming the site Parently Park to encompass the range of activity across the business, and it is our ambition to complete the relocation by spring 2024.”

 

 

Parently Park

The exceptional height of the new building being occupied by The Parently Group will increase warehouse storage capacity by 50% whilst also providing more space to expand the company’s garment decoration abilities. A new racking system will include mechanised aspects, automatically moving garments between levels. These elements will collectively increase stockholding while reducing the time between a customer placing an order and that order being ready for dispatch, which in turn will mean even later cut-offs for next-day delivery.

“Our increased capacity means we will continue to go even further in being the supplier that has the stockholding for when customers require the product,” continues Shuttleworth. “We’ll also be increasing the scope of our garment decoration facility with expanded embroidery, print and sewing facilities, which will give us the ability to strengthen the services we currently offer, all centralised in our new Garment Decoration Unit. All of our customers can expect to see us offering market-leading turnaround times on garment decoration, as the operation ramps up and we settle into our new home.”

The perks of Parently Park extend to the office environment, too.

As well as providing an inviting workspace, the new site includes a conference centre. This space will provide scope for hosting more events and has been earmarked to become a hub for industry gatherings, including the return of some of the company’s popular event formats such as the Tender Academy and Google Digital Garage. Of course, it goes without saying for a company whose values are rooted in sustainability and creating a healthy future that the new site will follow suit in that respect, too.

“First and foremost, we are moving into a much more modern building that has built-in environmental benefits that will help us to reduce our impact,” confirms Shuttleworth. “Although it already has solar panels, we plan to extend this to a larger scheme in due course, as we will have significant roof space to do so. We are also planning to wild some of the land we have on the site with a 20,000 sq. ft green plot given over to biodiversity net gain to really give our new home a ‘park’ feel. It’s important to us to connect with customers and other local businesses and we can’t wait to embed ourselves in the community. We’re planning to host a series of celebratory events and are looking forward to holding a big open day at Parently Park to celebrate our new home.”

Product developments

The company isn’t resting on its laurels when it comes to its product ranges either. Visitors at this year’s Schoolwear Show will see David Luke and its sister sports brand Juco occupying two stands, with key themes spanning innovation, price and the expansion of in-house capabilities for garment decoration. Highlights from the David Luke range include evolved styles in girls’ trousers with enhanced detail. Juco product innovations, meanwhile, include new mid-layers and the brand’s Tri-layer hero product. Juco will also showcase new brand images designed to support retailers when presenting its empowering, inclusive story to their schools.

“Pricing will be a hot topic for autumn as we see inflation start to ease a little, and we’ll be running show offers that will make it essential to come and visit us at our stand,” adds Shuttleworth. “Our dedicated in-house sales team will be on hand to talk through new pricing structures as well as share details about the planned relocation to our new three-acre warehouse and office site in Bredbury.”

 

 

The future

Despite the company’s focus on its future developments, attention is also being placed on assessing overall trading this year; a year that so far has seen several factors continue to impact the industry and society as a whole. “Along with aftershocks of the pandemic and supply chain problems, there was more stock in the system at retail this year − a small but noticeable impact of the Uniform Bill reducing specified items and the second-hand market seeing massive consumer uptake,” comments Shuttleworth.

“This is an exciting movement that aligns with everything we’re doing in the field of recommerce and circularity, but it has also grown due to the challenges families are facing with the increased cost of living. For many families, the impact of the cost of living crisis is now firmly embedded in their shopping habits, with many opting to trade down or buy fewer, better products. We’ve spoken in the past about encouraging a blended approach to buying school uniform, where new quality items are mixed with pre-worn, and it feels like this is exactly what parents have been doing.”

With a relocation on the horizon, 2024 is set to mark another exciting chapter for The Parently Group. It’s not all change though. The company’s commitment to circularity remains unwavering, from its pioneering eco fabric all those years ago to its circular products and partnership with The Circular Textiles Foundation today. A continued focus on providing support, stability and transparency also remains key.

“In a world that is ever-changing with crises and disruption, we aim to be consistent and reliable,” concludes Shuttleworth. “We are focused on settling into Parently Park and delivering service efficiencies to our customers to make it easier than ever to work with us. Our main priority is to commit to delivering better prices to our customers for our wide range of durable products. A business that’s open with its customers and always looking for solutions.”

For further information on the Parently Group, please click here.