Messina sells second-hand designer clothes from a new multilevel purpose-built warehouse in Port One Logistics Park in Great Blakenham, Suffolk.
The e-commerce company’s current warehouse space, kitted with reclaimed fixtures and fittings to further its green credentials, will process and rehome two million items annually. In contrast, a new programmed upgrade to a further 250,000 sq ft mega-warehouse means the output will increase to 10 million items annually.
This will make Europe’s largest store of preloved designer clothes under one roof.
To manufacture 10 million items of brand-new clothing would require:
- 50 billion litres of clean water annually, generating 150,000 tonnes of CO2.
- Therefore, this expansion by Messina at Port One represents a significant reduction in carbon output and dovetails with Port One’s recently announced sustainable construction features, including 36 acres of roof-mounted solar panels that ensure the development will be carbon-neutral operationally forever.
- The 150,000 tonnes of carbon emissions that Messina will eradicate is the equivalent of taking 33,000 combustion-powered cars off the roads for a full year or cancelling over half of the departures from Heathrow airport for a day.
Messina was founded in a university bedroom in 2011 by brothers Zachary and Joshua Hembry; humble beginnings for a company with a clear, precise vision of how to change the fashion industry in a good way.
From there, the company has gradually grown to comprise 30 employees. As it moves into its new Port One facility later this year, this will increase to 100 full-time employees before moving to 325 in 2024–2025 when the new mega-warehouse store opens.
Next year, Messina will launch its UK roadshow of a preloved kilo and premium brands to the UK. A new team of 40 staff will travel the UK in their green electric vehicles, presenting over 20,000 items of stock at each venue across the UK. Two teams will run simultaneously, demonstrating to visitors how much-recycled fashion is available with the largest choice of clothes on show at a mobile location. They are programmed to complete 200 venues with at least 5,000 visitors daily. The message will be for customers to take what they learn and promote the cause to friends and family.
Since day one, Messina has been focused on enabling the public to be more discerning about their carbon footprint. The wear-once, throwaway mentality needs to become a thing of the past, and the education process needs to start with school-age children.
To handle and process this enormous stock of clothing, each item must be individually catalogued, cleaned, checked for authenticity, photographed, repaired if viable, and condition inspected. Messina is developing unique cutting-edge AI-powered tools that can autonomously lay each item out, measure, photograph, and rack it ready to be advertised and sold online.
Murray Gibson, UK logistics and warehousing manager at Messina, says: “Messina has been leading the way in reclaiming, processing, cleaning and re-selling preloved designer clothes to the world, delivering to almost every country with our biodegradable packaging.
“This unique Suffolk firm has successfully developed a loyal following of customers from high society, titled and famous names to school and university students. The business is best known for saving discerning clothes buyers significant sums of money through the recycling of all kinds of branded garments; however, they are not just saving people money but also helping save over 150,000 tonnes of carbon emissions each year as a consequence of their expansion into new, additional premises at Port One.
“We’re delighted to house a thriving business with a social and environmental conscience and demonstrate that profit can be made whilst also being kind to the planet.”
