Classic Football Shirts to open 35,000 sq ft HQ
The vintage football shirt retailer is to open a purpose-built 35,000 sq ft headquarters and storage facility in Hyde after securing a £2.5m funding package from Lloyds.
Currently based on Edwin Road near the Etihad Campus, the company was founded in 2006 and has stores at Manchester’s Barton Arcade and London.
After securing the funding from Lloyds Commercial Banking, Classic Football Shirts will open a new headquarters and warehouse in early 2020. The development will include 6,000 sq ft of offices along with a warehouse to store an inventory of more than 500,000 retro football shirts.
The company employs around 80 people.
Matthew Dale, co-founder of Classic Football Shirts, said: “The growth we’ve enjoyed in the last decade has been phenomenal and something we couldn’t have envisaged when we bought and sold our first shirt. To support the massive amounts of stock that fuel our international e-commerce business, we doubled the capacity of our current warehouse in 2014 but this move will give us much greater headroom for further growth.
“Lloyds Bank has been integral in facilitating the acquisition and, given the relationship we’ve developed with the team since switching, we’re looking forward to them being by our side as we diversify our products ranges and grow the business’s reach with sports fans around the world.”
