Printful has confirmed that its £2.6m UK fulfilment centre, first announced in June, is set to open its doors before the end of 2021.

The print-on-demand and fulfilment specialist previously predicted that the 90,000sqft facility, which is located in Wolverhampton, will create over 50 new jobs during its first year of operations.

The company is recognised as Latvia’s first ‘unicorn’ startup, meaning it is a privately held startup company valued at over $1 billion. It hopes that the expansion into the UK will allow it to provide local fulfilment and deliveries within the country in two business days.

Printful plans to invest an initial £2.6 million ($3 million) in the new fulfillment centre and will immediately provide services including direct-to-garment printing and embroidery for home and living items, with longer term plans to add other fulfillment options.

The firm currently operates nine in-house facilities globally, three of which are in Europe – two in Latvia and one in Spain. Along with its expansion into the UK, another facility is also set to open in Poland in the near future.

Since it was founded in 2013 by Lauris Liberts and Davis Siksnans,  Printful has grown to the point where it employs over 1800 staff  and boasts revenues in excess of $208m. It has invested more than £41.6 million in printing equipment, has more than 375,000 active customers and fulfils more than 1 million items every month.

‘We chose the UK as our next location because it’s the largest ecommerce market in Europe,’ Mr Siksnans explained when the fulfilment centre was first announced. ‘Printful has a loyal and growing base of customers in the UK who have anticipated our UK expansion for a while and we’re thrilled to finally do it. Additionally, it will allow us to significantly shorten shipping times within the UK, making it easy to reach many new customers.’