29 September, 2026

Retailer Classic Football Shirts has recorded the busiest-ever period in its 20-year history as World Cup fever drove unprecedented demand from supporters around the globe.

Across June and July, orders dispatched by the Hyde, UK-based company rose 101 per cent compared with the same period in 2025. Central to helping CFS handle the surge has been its five-year technology partnership with Shipster, the Manchester-based multi-carrier shipping software provider for eCommerce retailers, warehouses and distributors, specialising in custom integrations.

This year, Shipster worked with CFS to integrate a Logopak/Adpak Ecommerce Auto Bagger into its eCommerce fulfilment operation, adding automated packing and label application for carrier collection. Shipster sends the relevant shipment and label data to the Logopak system, which prints and applies the shipping label as part of the automated packing process. For eligible orders, packing time was reduced from minutes to seconds.

During the FIFA World Cup, the combined setup helped CFS manage record order volumes, with the packing machine automatically packing almost two-thirds (64%) of all orders during the tournament.

The new record surpassed a previous high, set during the most recent Black Friday and Christmas trading periods. Demand during the World Cup was fuelled by supporters reliving iconic football moments and reconnecting with the teams, players and shirts that defined previous tournaments.

The biggest sales success of the World Cup was CFS’ new Away Days Mystery Box range. As demand began building ahead of the tournament, 23,830 Mystery Box products were ordered between May and August, including almost 10,000 England Mystery Boxes. Argentina shirts were among the strongest national team sellers, while Cape Verde also enjoyed an unexpected boost in demand following its performance against Spain.

Founded by friends Matt Dale and Douglas Bierton in 2006, CFS has grown from a student-house startup into a global ecommerce business serving customers in more than 130 countries and generating annual revenues of more than £30 million. The company houses a collection of more than one million authenticated football shirts and memorabilia items, including rare and historic shirts associated with icons such as Pelé, Diego Maradona, Johan Cruyff and David Beckham. Over the five-year partnership with Shipster, CFS has more than tripled warehouse productivity, enabling staff to process hundreds more orders every day.

Brandon Evans, Outbound Operations Manager at Classic Football Shirts, said: “The World Cup has always been one of the biggest moments in the football calendar for us. Every tournament creates a new wave of nostalgia as supporters reconnect with the teams, players and shirts that defined previous World Cups. Whether it’s a classic Brazil shirt, a memorable England kit or a shirt worn by one of football’s biggest icons, fans want to own a piece of those memories.

“This World Cup put our fulfilment operation under sustained pressure and Shipster made a massive difference. Without the automation and flexibility we’ve built into the operation with Shipster, we simply wouldn’t have been able to dispatch anywhere near the volume of orders we achieved and still maintain the speed and service our customers expect.”

Tony Cheetham, Founder and CEO of Shipster, said: “Major sporting events can create huge spikes in demand almost overnight, so retailers need systems that are fast, flexible and capable of scaling quickly.

“Classic Football Shirts has some unique operational challenges. It manages more than one million individual products, ships to customers around the world and regularly experiences sudden peaks in demand driven by tournaments, product launches and viral moments.

“Over the last five years, we’ve worked closely with the team to build a highly automated and increasingly sophisticated fulfilment operation that gives CFS the speed and flexibility to adapt as demand changes. That has ranged from routing and labelling to bespoke processes supporting products such as the hugely popular CFS Away Days Mystery Boxes, as well as international shipping infrastructure supporting its growing US retail presence. The World Cup provided the ultimate real-world test of that investment, and it delivered.”

Aldi has begun handling fruit and vegetables at its Bardon Distribution Centre in Leicestershire, as the UK’s largest automated warehouse moves into its next phase of operation. The first pallets of produce, including ginger and avocados, were delivered to the site on Wednesday 16 September, with the first outbound pallet the following day.

The start of fresh produce operations follows the launch of operations at Bardon in May 2026. The UK’s biggest discounter has invested more than £500m in the site, which forms part of Aldi’s £1.6bn investment in Britain during 2026 and 2027. The facility is also the lowest carbon density warehouse across the Aldi South Group, with 19,000 solar panels installed on the roof.

Once fully operational in 2027, during peak periods more than 1.5 million kilograms of fruit and vegetables will move through the 1.3 million-square-foot site daily and more than 6,000 pallets of fresh produce will depart the Bardon Distribution Centre every day, bound for Aldi stores across the UK.

The latest automated technology being used at the site, delivered by technology partner Cimcorp, will help Aldi move fresh produce through the site more efficiently, while maintaining the different temperatures required to maintain the freshness and shelf life of products including salad leaves, bananas and soft fruit.

The investment will add capacity to Aldi’s distribution network as the supermarket works towards its long-term ambition of operating 1,500 UK stores. Once fully operational, the site will employ around 1,000 colleagues and have the capacity to handle nearly seven million pallets annually.

The fresh produce operation at Bardon spans three dedicated temperature-controlled areas, with chilled storage for products like apples and carrots, and a specialist banana room. In the chilled chamber, pallets are moved into high-bay racking until they’re needed to go to stores; then automated shuttles will call them down for dispatch.

As the UK’s third biggest retailer of fresh produce, Aldi sells an average of 2.2 billion fruit and vegetables every year, including over 300 million bananas, 80 million apples and 160 million potatoes. In July 2026 alone, Aldi sold 2,250 tonnes of British apples, making it the biggest customer of domestic apple growers. The retailer also has a target to increase the number of portions of fruit and veg sold by 14% by the end of 2027.

Jonathan Heaton, Regional Managing Director for Bardon at Aldi UK, said: “The start of fresh produce operations at Bardon is a proud moment for everyone involved in this project and marks a step change in how we serve our customers. Fresh produce is a vital part of our customers’ shopping, yet it presents one of the most complex challenges in grocery logistics, with products needing to move quickly and efficiently from suppliers to stores to maintain freshness. The technology we’ve implemented with Cimcorp allows us to handle enormous volumes while maintaining the precision and care that fresh products demand.

“This investment is about more than efficiency. By reducing the cost of moving products from our suppliers to our stores, we can continue to deliver the lowest prices on the market while ensuring customers always find fresh, high-quality fruit and vegetables on our shelves. As operations build over the coming weeks, Bardon will play an increasingly important role in Aldi’s supply chain, supporting our continued growth across the UK.”

Mikko Kumpulainen, System Planning Development Manager & Key Account Manager at Cimcorp, said: “Fresh food logistics present unique operational challenges that require specialised technology and expertise. This distribution centre demonstrates how intelligent automation can manage high volumes while maintaining the flexibility needed for a complex grocery environment.

“Our automation allows Aldi to respond more effectively to changing demand patterns while supporting long-term growth. Ultimately, the goal is simple: ensuring high-quality fresh products are available for consumers whenever they visit their local store.”

Day: 29 September 2026

Football Shirts Shipped in World Cup Order Surge

Aldi Automated Distribution Centre Ramps-Up

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