Shein confirms Manchester as fast fashion hub with new office

Fast fashion giant, Shein, has set its sights on setting up headquarters in Manchester – following the likes of its Boohoo, In The Style, Missguided and Sosandar.

This step may be tied to the giant’s recent acquisition of Missguided, also managed in the popular city. Last month, the Chinese-founded company made its first acquisition in the UK, buying women’s clothing brand Missguided for an undisclosed amount. At the time, the company said it plans to "reignite" the brand, which was bought out of administration just a year and a half ago by Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group.

In Manchester, otherwise known as fast-fashion central, Shein will initially hire 15 staff members in 2024. According to The Mail on Sunday, recruitment is already underway for clothing buyers and designers.

Chris Fletcher, the Policy and Campaigns Director at the Chamber, told Business Live: "There’s an interesting coming together of history and new business models that may go some of the way to explaining why Greater Manchester is a major hub for fashion brands.

"Manchester is steeped in and some would say built on the legacy from cotton manufacturing... These days the commercial aspect of this very much revolves more around the finished product and the huge growth that Manchester has seen in digital and e-commerce expertise in particular, rather than the raw material itself."

The company was founded in 2012 in Nanjing, China and is now headquartered in Singapore. It already has an existing office in London, which employs approximately 40 people.

Shein already sources some of its garments from Manchester and Leicester, which are the UK's two main hubs for textile manufacturing. An expanded operation in the North West could pave the way for more production in Britain rather than in China.

Plans for a Manchester hub come as Shein has seen booming success within the UK market. It saw sales of £1.1 billion for the 16 months to the end of December 2022.

This isn't the first investment Shein has made into the UK retail market this year. Back in March, Shein took on brick-and-mortar retail with a trio of pop-ups in Birmingham, Bristol and Cardiff. In May, the company hosted an additional pop-up in Cork, the Republic of Ireland.