Europe's leading dancewear retailer, Move Dance, has invested £1.6m in securing new premises at Airport City Manchester to support ambitious growth plans.

The Manchester-based online retailer has signed a ten-year lease on a new 17,000 square foot warehouse and has completed the build of a new 2,500 square foot office at the Airport City campus.

Established by two Mancunians in 2007, the technology-first business is on track to achieve revenues of £8.5m by the end of the financial year and plans to surpass the £10m mark in 2019-20.

The 50-strong team recently celebrated a bumper sales period – increasing year-on-year revenue by 79 per cent on Black Friday.

The retailer’s impressive journey began with a small shop in Manchester’s Northern Quarter – run by John Cormack who went on to partner with eCommerce professional Robin Gillyon to establish the online shop together.

Just over £1,000 of sales were secured within 24 hours of launching the website, the equivalent of a week’s takings at the Northern Quarter store, inspiring the entrepreneurs to swiftly set their sights on becoming Europe’s leading online dance retailer.

Move Dance’s sales surpassed its biggest European competitor in 2017 and the retailer now sells in more than 120 countries worldwide.

As well as developing an in-house team of eCommerce specialists, the retailer secured a competitive edge by designing and manufacturing its own range of affordable dancewear to complement its choice of popular third-party brands.

After starting off with manufacturing a small range of tights, Move Dance’s in-house team now design everything from tutus to technically advanced ballet shoes, and sales of its own-brand products have surpassed that of the third-party market-leading brands to Move Dance customers.

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Co-founder Robin Gillyon said: "After occupying several locations on our journey to here, we now have state-of-the-art facilities for our office and fulfilment staff - and enough space to continue progress in growing our business across the globe as a leading dancewear brand and retailer.”