Fast-growing eCommerce fulfilment company Huboo is to create more than 400 jobs under its latest expansion plans as it prepares to open a major new warehouse.
The Bristol-headquartered firm, which increased its revenue by 124% in the year to January, is to occupy a new 106,000 sq ft building close to junction 17 of the M4 near Chippenham. 
Built nearly 18 months ago as the first unit on the 78-acre industrial and logistics site being developed by St Modwen’s, the warehouse, pictured, will be double the size of Huboo’s largest UK site.
The firm has grown rapidly since its launch in 2017, when it had two employees, 60 customers and recurring venues of £20,000 a month.
Today it has more than 1,000 customers, earns £1.7m a month and employs more than 650 people across its head office in Corn Street, fulfilment centres in Emersons Green and Severn Beach and a storage centre in Bradley Stoke – along with sites in the Netherlands, Spain and a newly opened warehouse in Leipzig, Germany, which is roughly the same size at the Chippenham base.
The firm’s growth has been based on its intuitive ‘microhub’ technology, which allows online retailers of all sizes to use its complete fulfilment operation within minutes.
Huboo also harnesses innovative software to make its warehouses smarter, more productive and human centric. 
Each ‘hub’ replicates the inputs, processes and outputs of a complete warehouse within a few hundred square feet, with Huboo’s management software keeping tabs on every item throughout the fulfilment process.
Growth at the firm, which last year raised £60m in a series B funding round led by Emirati-based sovereign fund Mubadala, has accelerated over the past two years due to the step-change in eCommerce demand sparked by the pandemic.
It said it chose the Chippenham site for its next warehouse because of its transport links to along the M4 and M5 corridors as well as its access to major ports such as Bristol and Southampton.
Huboo co-founder and CEO Martin Bysh, pictured, said: “Our UK growth trajectory is a vital part of our strategic plans and we’re delighted to mark this with the opening of our biggest facility to date, despite recent market uncertainties.
“We’re confident that the UK’s retail sector will make a strong post-pandemic recovery and, in the meantime, we’re happy to support regional talent and the local economy with the creation of a wide range of new job opportunities, all driven by our leading technology and world-first microhub model.” 
Huboo chief operating officer Allan Blakeley added: “We recognise that Chippenham is a thriving town with a growing business community and we look forward to contributing towards its future success, while we remain focused on serving our existing customers and exploring new opportunities.”
Josh Gunn, head of industrial & logistics South West for property agents BNP Paribas Real Estate, which handled the Huboo deal, said the strength of the regional economy was driving competition among occupiers for high-quality warehouses in excellent locations.
But he added: “To allow aspirational businesses like Huboo to expand and grow, greater supply must be addressed across the South West market.”
In February Huboo announced it is to become the main shirt sponsor for all five of Bristol Sport’s professional teams, including Bristol City and Bristol Bears, in a UK first for a sporting group.
The ground-breaking deal, which takes effect from the start of the 2022/23 season, will make Bristol-based Huboo principal partner for Bristol Sport’s football teams Bristol City men and women, its Bristol Bears men and women rugby teams and basketball side Bristol Flyers.
The Huboo brand will feature on the front of the shirts of all five teams – the first time a collection of sports teams will have had one unified principal partner.
