Hiring: Spreadshirt has grand plans in '13
- Apparel firm aims to double workforce
Spreadshirt, which puts custom designs on T-shirts, is more than doubling its workforce as it strikes partnerships with major brands and a growing pantheon of reality TV and YouTube stars.
The online company, which also prints words and designs on sweat pants, aprons and other accessories, currently employs 300 people in the U.S. It recently hired 100 temporary workers at its main 220-employee factory in Greensburg, Pa. for the holidays. More than half will be kept on as permanent staffers in January.
Spreadshirt also has added 80 employees the past few months at a second plant it opened last August in Henderson, Nev. Over the next year, Spreadshirt plans to add another 120 workers in Henderson, where the company is snapping up unemployed manufacturing and construction workers.
Factory machine operators earn $10 to $15 an hour, while managers earn $15 to $20.
All told, the additions will more than double the company's U.S. workforce in just over a year to about 475, says Mark Venezia, vice president of global sales and marketing. Spreadshirt also has operations in Europe.
Such job growth is a boon for Henderson, where unemployment is hovering near 11% following the real estate crash, among the highest in the nation. New jobs are more common in western Pennsylvania, which is benefiting from a natural gas drilling boom.
Venezia says the job gains are a response to explosive growth. Revenue rose 104% in 2011 and 83% this year.
Behind the gains are hundreds of partnerships Spreadshirt is striking each year with celebrities such as Evelyn Lazoda of VH1's Basketball Wives and brands such as Dr Pepper. T-shirts feature their logos or catchphrases and allow consumers to add personalized elements. Ads drive traffic to the partners' websites, where consumers can buy the shirts.
Spreadshirt customers also can choose from among 500,000 designs, order their own clothing or accessories that they personalize with quotes or pictures, or combine the two.
The products, he says, are affordable for shoppers on a tight budget in a down economy, with T-shirts costing $10 to $20.
"As opposed to going into a big department store and buying a bottle of perfume (for $100)" as a gift, a customer can "spend $25 and customize an apron and put (the recipient's) cat on it," Venezia says. "It shows you know what they like."
The sluggish economy and uncertainty related to U.S. budget woes "was a concern" when Spreadshirt opened the Henderson facility, Venezia says. But, he adds, "We were confident that based on our growth we could keep the plant busy."