Company invests £3.5million into 133,000 sqft depot and showroom

Family-owned bathroom supplier Wholesale Domestic has invested £3.5million to triple in size and transform into a national operation.

It has opened a 133,000sqft storage depot and showroom in Hillington, outside of Glasgow, and close to its existing 45,000sqft premises, which is expected to create up to 40 jobs by the end of 2017.

Wholesale Domestic is reported to have seen turnover double since 2012, which it claims has been largely based on its online sales.

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Its investment  into storage space and stock picking in a newly-refurbished warehouse is forecast to allow the firm to grow at 20% each year.

Established in 1963, the business will now pursue a two-pronged local and national strategy, selling 5,000 product lines held in stock to B2B and B2C customers.

In addition, it offers web customers access up to 30,000 products through ecommerce partnerships with other national suppliers.

Walter Toward, who co-owns Wholesale Domestic with his brother Derek and nephew Brian said: “We are in the process of reinventing ourselves as an e-commerce leader by acquiring the scale needed to become a national company. With ecommerce at the forefront, our strategy is to look after our existing customer base while making the new base into a model logistics operation that can be replicated elsewhere in the country.

“With our narrowed supply chain, and the improved purchasing power, we can ride out currency fluctuations better, and this new capacity gives us the ability to buy more at better prices. The new Hillington facility is now the beating heart of our operation, in all channels, the stock and back-up will be co-ordinated from here.”