Redcats USA opened a new 740,000-square-foot fulfillment center in Plainfield, IN, last month to accommodate the company's growing home products business.
New York-based Redcats, which was known as Brylane until July, is the home-shopping division of Pinault-Printemps-Redoute. It is best known for apparel catalogs such as Lane Bryant, Jessica London and Chadwick's of Boston. In 1998, the company launched a home lifestyles division to sell home furnishings, household linen and lighting under the Brylane brand. There are four catalogs in this division: Brylane Home, Brylane Kitchen, Brylane Wishes and the newest, Brylane Essentials, which made its debut in March.
In 2003, home lifestyles brought in sales of $214 million and mailed 130 million catalogs.
The new facility is expected to support future growth by streamlining the fulfillment process for non-apparel merchandise. Previously, these items were batch picked via high-speed, automated sorting equipment at the company's fulfillment center in Indianapolis, but often needed to be repackaged because of errors.
At the new facility, products will be picked by individual customer order, virtually eliminating the need for repackaging. The new facility also provides additional storage space, eliminating the need for third-party storage on certain items. The company expects to realize significant savings as a result of these enhancements.
More than 140 operations employees work at the Plainfield center, which also processes large, non-sortable items.
In 2004, Redcats expects to mail 500 million catalogs and ship 42 million items, of which about 2.5 million will come from the new facility in Plainfield.
Redcats USA also operates fulfillment centers in Taunton and West Bridgewater, MA, and Indianapolis.
