DC Velocity
How Urban Outfitters Grew from Campus Specialty Shop to Global Chain without Overtaxing its Distribution Network.
David Maloney, Special Projects Editor
[Urban Outfitters] opened its first stores near Ivy League schools. The original store is located near the University of Pennsylvania, the second in Harvard Square, a Frisbee toss from Harvard Yard. Today, the Urban Outfitters name has spread nationwide to 90 stores. It also has three stores in Canada, six in the United Kingdom, and one in Ireland. In addition, the company operates 79 Anthropologie stores and its newest chain, Free People, includes six stores. On top of that, the company markets directly to consumers via catalog and Web sales, and has a wholesale channel that sells its Free People brand of clothing to department stores and specialty shops.
The company’s distribution network currently consists of three facilities. The oldest in the network, opened in 1996, is a 192,000-square-foot facility located in Gap, Pa., in the heart of Amish country. A second is operated for Urban Outfitters by a third-party service company in Reno, Nev. Both of those facilities feed the company’s stores. The third DC, in Trenton, S.C., fulfills catalog and Internet orders.
Since many of the stores are located in the East, about two-thirds of all products pass through the Gap facility, which has 121 employees. Key to handling that much volume is the DC’s large put-to-light area, whose equipment was supplied by AL Systems. Some 90 percent of arriving goods bypass storage and are assigned to stores immediately upon receipt. The system consists of 10 packing lanes, each with 110 put locations directed by lights. Stores are typically assigned to the same slots within the area, but can easily be reassigned as needed. McKinney says the put-to-light system has doubled packing productivity at the DC.
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