A Swansea company which began life trading from a market stall is investing £3.2m to acquire 157,000 sq ft of warehousing units and offices at Morriston to supports its expansion plans.
Leading giftware designer and importer Something Different Wholesale is purchasing the 61,000 sq ft building H it currently leases on Swansea Enterprise Park, as well as adjacent buildings totalling a further 96,000 sq ft.
It will spend around £1m renovating and remodelling the units to suit its growing business. Over the next three years the firm is forecasting to increase its head count by 50% to reach 120.
Founder Jane Wallace-Jones has grown the business steadily since it was established 25 years ago to a current turnover of £12m.
The company now designs its own ranges of giftware items, which are manufactured in China, Indonesia, India and the UK and supplied to retailers, both online and to high street retailers across the UK and globally.
Ms Wallace-Jones said: “We have seen our sales double over the past 12 months and that is thanks to our hardworking, dedicated team headed up by commercial director Anthony David and myself.”
“We hope to increase our workforce from the current 80 people to more than 120 in the next three years. We are investing heavily to automate the way we run our warehouse, including £130,000 in a new computerised customer service system – and a digital robot to automate repetitive tasks.
“Our focus is to push our company in a much more environmentally-friendly direction in everything it does, and as a start that includes installing solar electricity panels on the roofs of the three warehouse units.”
Neil Francis, head of Knight Frank’s logistics and industrial division in Cardiff, who acted for the vendor said: “We are delighted to have achieved sales of these buildings to such a successful local company. Something Different is a remarkable story and we look forward to seeing the company grow and thrive in Morriston in the years ahead.”
The company is currently on the Welsh Government’s Accelerated Growth programme which supports high-growth businesses.
