A year in the making: The Range goes on recruitment drive as UK omnichannel retailer opens new warehouse

Home and leisure retailer The Range has opened a new warehouse that spans 1.17 million square ft.

This is located in Stowmarket and will provide 1,600 jobs to the local community.

A year in the making, it will serve both The Range and wilko.com customers across the South, South East, East of England and the East Midlands.

The Range said: “The warehouse is complete with an on-site gym and canteen. Plus, to help ease our employee's commute there’s a bus, bike racks and electric vehicle charging stations available.”

“Recruitment is currently underway for a variety of jobs, including forklift truck drivers, order picking, loading and dispatching, HR, health and safety, catering staff and drivers.”

Virtualstock

The Range recently chose Virtualstock as its technology partner to enhance its capability to sell more products online through dropshipping.

The UK retailer struck a multimillion-pound deal to buy the 93 year-old Wilko  brand in 2023. This included the wilko.com website which was already utilising the Virtualstock platform.

Now, both brands will tap the company’s cloud-based SaaS platform.  

According to a press release: “This new collaboration empowers both retailers to attain more scalable, profitable growth through dropship. Utilising a one-to-many connection, the retailers can quickly and easily grow their online product range and categories with their trusted dropship suppliers.”

“Leveraging a comprehensive suite of modules, the platform enables both retailers to provide more choice to customers, facilitates smoother transactions and ensures an informed customer journey.”

It adds: “The rapid expansion and reopening of high street stores by The Range and Wilko demonstrate the importance of blending offline and online shopping for sustained retail success.”

“The innovative technology collaboration with Virtualstock further emphasises the strategic importance of embracing both retail channels.”  

Ed Bradley, CEO and Founder at Virtualstock, said: “Providing customers with a broader range of choices online is a key factor in maintaining foot traffic to physical stores.”

“Forward thinking retailers, such as The Range, recognise the evolving role of bricks and mortar stores and are prepared to adapt their models to fuel growth in 2024 and beyond.”

“Through our partnership, The Range is ushering in a new era of success in a fast changing digital market.”