Clara brings a third regional fulfilment centre online ahead of schedule

Clara's third regional fulfilment centre began processing orders this month, seven weeks ahead of the schedule set at approval. The site serves six markets in continental Europe and takes the platform's total covered footprint to fourteen.

The median delivery window across those six markets has fallen by just under a day since the site opened. Clara expects that figure to settle rather than improve further once seasonal volume returns in the autumn.

The early completion is largely a sequencing outcome. Racking and the conveyor fit-out were run in parallel with the final building works rather than after them, which is only possible when the shell is handed over on a fixed date and the operator is willing to accept the risk of working around it.

Clara will not open a fourth site this financial year. The platform's constraint has moved from storage capacity to last-mile carrier availability in two of its newer markets, and the group's position is that adding warehouse space against a carrier constraint is capital spent on the wrong problem.