Welcome to the latest episode of our Beyond Threads podcast. In this edition, we caught up with the dynamic couple Ellen Cattebeke and Joris Smeunix – founders of the fast-growing menswear brand Wolk Antwerp. Together with our host, Erik Janssen-Steenberg, Business Development and Innovation Manager at Bleckmann, they discussed their experiences of running a fashion start-up – and how they balance the many competing pressures of their business and personal lives with managing their logistics operations.
Space to grow: Working with a specialist fashion logistics partner
For many fashion start-ups, coordinating logistics operations can prove to be one of the most challenging – and potentially limiting – factors in trying to grow your business. For example, the space and manpower required to pack and process orders will always place a hard limit on a company’s fulfilment capabilities. And, like many fashion start-ups, Ellen and Joris began by fulfilling orders from their own home. However, given their rapid growth, this soon became unsustainable. “It got to the point where every room in our house was filled with boxes”, says Joris. “We were even scared that the floors were going to fall through!”
Once orders reach a certain volume, all start-ups have to make a choice: either invest in warehouse space and staff or outsource to a third-party logistics (3PL) provider. “We looked at leasing our own space” adds Ellen. “But it just didn’t make sense for us. It would have cost us so much money, and then we could still have had problems or delays if people called in sick or something.” Instead, they decided to outsource Wolk’s logistics operations to Bleckmann with our new Bscale solution, giving the brand all the capacity it needed to accommodate its rapid expansion – without the need to invest in its own warehouse space.
Streamlining operations with efficient fashion fulfilment
Like storage space, time is a finite resource for many fashion start-ups – due to the limited manpower available to them. And when it comes to logistics, time constraints not only place an upper limit on the number of orders you can process. For example, Ellen and Joris would spend hours each evening picking and packing orders. “It was incredibly difficult to take days off or go on holiday”, says Ellen. “If we weren’t there to do it ourselves, then fulfilment simply wouldn’t get done, and orders would be late.”
As well as taking a toll on Ellen and Joris’ personal lives, managing all the logistics processes took valuable time away from other areas of the business. “After a while, we really wanted to put more time into marketing and growing the brand, as we felt we were ready to make that next step”, Joris explains. “But we found it difficult to do this when all our time was being taken up by packing and processing orders. Since partnering with Bleckmann, we’ve had much more space to concentrate on developing new products and growing the business.”
Want to find out more about Wolk Antwerp’s growth journey with Bleckmann? Press play on the latest episode of the Beyond Threads podcast to get the full story! You can also get all the details about our new Bscale solution here.
