The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
French online retailer opens first UK base in city
Clothing firm’s move will create 30 jobs over three years
An online clothing retailer based in France has chosen Peterborough as the location for its first UK base.
Patatam has agreed a 10 year lease on the 17,657 sq ft unit 2B at Centurion Business Centre in Bretton which will be its UK operations hub.
The company says the warehouse will initially create eight jobs increasing to 12 by the end of the year.
It is hoped the warehouse will employ 30 staff in three years.
It will be Patatam’s first base in the UK as the company, which sells good quality nearly new clothing for women, children and babies, seeks to expand its business, which is firmly established in France and Spain.
It allows customers to sell their clothes back to them and also to purchase high quality, second-hand clothing that is still in good condition at a heavy discount to the normal retail price.
The move to Peterborough was overseen jointly by the city’s economic regeneration company Opportunity Peterborough, the Department for International Trade and the British Embassy in Paris.
The warehouse was let by commercial agents Savills on behalf of CBRE Global Investors Ltd.
A spokesman for OP said: “As a company that is encouraging the re-use and re-circulation of clothing this ties in really well with the city’s circular economy ambitions too.”
The warehouse features a production line that includes equipment which automatically loads photographs of the clothes along with product details to the website as soon as the photograph is taken.
Sam Major is surveyor in the business space team at Savills Peterborough.
Sam said: “Providing newly refurbished warehouse accommodation in the wellestablished Centurion Business Centre situated just outside of Peterborough city centre, this is the perfect place for Patatam to set up their business.
“New to the UK, this proves Peterborough’s strength as a commercial location and the quality product that the city currently has on offer.”