A visit to Tendam's new Illescas logistics centre

At the invitation of Tendam and technology company Dematic, FashionUnited toured the new logistics centre that the Spanish fashion multinational has now brought to full capacity in the Toledo town of Illescas, Spain. This is a particularly strategic location, bordering Madrid, where the company has just established the new hub for its online operations.

The project for this new Tendam logistics centre in Illescas was approved by the company's management in 2021. It involved an estimated investment of over 25 million euros and a storage area of more than 63,000 square metres. Development work began in 2022, with initial groundwork carried out in 2023. Construction was completed and the facility became operational in the second half of 2024, as previously reported by FashionUnited. This followed a phased process for its operational readiness, which was fully completed about a year later in the second half of 2025. At this point, the logistics platform reached full operational capacity. It is the result of a collaboration between Tendam, its consultancy Miebach, and the technology company Dematic, which specialises in automation solutions for supply chains.

In fact, “one of the biggest challenges of the project was to implement the model in a building that was not yet finished,” explained Diana Lliso, director of the Barcelona office at the consultancy Miebach. She was speaking during the “Open House” event organised by Dematic and Tendam on September 25, which we attended alongside a distinguished group of representatives from the technology company's main clients in Spain. The day aimed to highlight the new technologies and optimisation solutions implemented in this new logistics centre. It also showcased how the facility is serving, and will continue to serve, to strengthen Tendam's online channel operations.

New heart of Tendam's online operations

For the first part of the day's schedule, representatives from the three main parties involved in the development of this new logistics facility in Illescas—Tendam, Miebach and Dematic—offered an initial overview of the site. They delivered talks highlighting some of the centre's unique features and the specific Tendam dynamics that these infrastructures were designed to address. Manel Jiménez, chief operating officer of Tendam, opened the series of brief conferences.

During his speech, Jiménez provided a brief overview of the Spanish company's history, which spans more than 140 years. He emphasised the profound evolution Tendam has undergone in recent years, adopting a new identity as an omnichannel and multi-brand company. It currently owns a portfolio of 12 of its own fashion brands. This business model led to “the best year in the company's history” in 2024, he noted, after closing the financial year with revenues of around 1.4 billion euros. A new phase of development has also begun following the entry of the Emirati company Multiply as the new majority shareholder. Regarding this change in ownership, Jiménez stressed that Multiply has already indicated its clear ambitions to rapidly scale its fashion retail operations, with Tendam as a key part of that vertical, a point they have also made publicly.

“Now it's going to be a marathon compared to the short sprints we've run so far,” he said, referring to the growth rates they aim to achieve. For these goals, this Illescas logistics centre will be key, with a capacity to scale its operations by “+30 to +50 percent” above its current capabilities, according to Jiménez. “The first challenge was getting the project up and running; now the goal is to evolve it,” he noted. He also highlighted how the new facilities are becoming the “new core” of “our logistics network for the online business.” This network will be supported by “this warehouse, the one in Mexico, and the group's stores,” which also act as logistics “mini-hubs.” For Spain and Portugal, stores prepare 14 percent of the nearly 15 million online orders the company currently generates annually and handle 75 percent of all online order returns.

Following him, Diana Lliso from Miebach took the floor. She detailed how, as part of their long-standing collaboration with Tendam, the consultancy led all the preliminary study and analysis work that ultimately led to the construction of this logistics facility in Illescas. This work followed previous projects for the company. These included the construction of Tendam's logistics centre in Aranjuez, which centralises all the group's logistics operations; the search for a logistics operator for its distribution centre in Mexico; and a study for the development of Tendam's logistics model in the Balkans. This process culminated in a study of the company's e-commerce logistics model. This analysis of its current and future operations and needs laid the groundwork for the design, construction, and launch of the Illescas facility. Designed to support the Aranjuez centre, it will handle all online commerce operations for the group's various brands, preparing 85 percent of all its online orders.

Closing this first part of the day were Sonia Bello, commercial director for Spain and Portugal at Dematic, and Cristina Navarro, solutions developer for the Iberia region at the technology company. Their consecutive presentations provided an initial look at the different areas and processes within Tendam's new logistics centre in Illescas. The platform is equipped with Dematic's latest supply chain automation solutions, including both technology and advanced software. It centralises all logistics operations related to online sales that cannot be handled in-store into a single warehouse in Spain. This creates a global hub that is also integrated with Tendam's other distribution centres in Spain, Mexico and Hong Kong.

Capacity for 7.5 million products

After this initial introduction to the facility and the context of its launch, we were able to visit the centre to tour the different areas of Tendam's new logistics platform. We were guided by Tomas Segado, head of logistics for the Spanish multinational. During the tour, we had the opportunity to observe how all tasks are carried out within the plant, based on the custom design and implementation of Dematic's technologies.

Structured around a total of up to ten distinct areas, the processes within the plant are fully digitised and technology-assisted. These areas range from the receiving and depalletising zone, equipped with a five-sided volumetric scanner, to the packing and dispatch area for online orders, which is organised by logistics operators. The plant currently has the capacity to process up to 53,000 orders daily. Key features of the new facility include the “miniload” area, with a storage capacity for two million products. A system has been implemented here that automatises the receipt and storage of items, and it is directly connected to the picking area, which has an additional capacity for 7.5 million products. Another key feature is the “pouch sorter,” a digitised and automated zone where garments for online orders arrive after passing through the induction area. Through a sequenced, three-phase process managed by Dematic's software, items are perfectly grouped by order before being transferred to the packing area. This is the final zone in the plant's organisational system, from where orders are dispatched fully prepared.

“The most notable aspect of this automation is how the ‘pouch sorter’ and the ‘miniload’ work in a fully integrated manner, orchestrated by our Dematic software,” highlights Sonia Bello, commercial director for Spain and Portugal at Dematic. “This combination has given Tendam greater flexibility and speed in order preparation, while also simplifying returns management.” “The result,” she adds, is a “more efficient operation and a better experience for both operators and customers.”

“We needed to support the growth of the online channel, improving profitability and service levels,” says Tendam's chief operating officer, Manel Jiménez, outlining the key priorities for implementing Dematic's solutions. In line with these objectives, he adds, “following this collaboration, by reducing preparation routes, we have noticed a significant improvement in operator ergonomics, as well as a major improvement in the use of warehouse space and in energy efficiency.”

Technology, growth and labour responsibility

Taking advantage of our visit to the facility, we spoke with Manel Jiménez, chief operating officer of Tendam, to discuss various issues related to the company, the logistics centre, and the group's commitments to its workers. This includes those involved in Tendam's logistics operations, even if they are employed by third-party companies.

“It's all about technology,” he first highlights, noting how the company has implemented a new internal platform, the “Order Management System.” This system “takes all online orders and, based on an algorithm, decides in real-time the most optimal way to process each order,” using digitised stock from the stores and this warehouse in Illescas. This means that, for example, “if a Women'secret order is placed for collection at the La Vaguada store, and the store has stock, the order is prepared directly in the store instead of at this centre in Illescas.” “The distance from here to La Vaguada is not very far, but when we are talking about orders in Barcelona or Paris, that's when this digitisation becomes more significant.” He adds that the same platform can also divert preparation “to another nearby store,” always depending on the stock and each point-of-sale, which are assigned a limit on the number of orders they can prepare based on their inventory levels.

Regarding how the new centre also participates in the returns process, “we have the competitive advantage that our customers prefer to return products to the store,” minimising reverse logistics processes, which are also handled at this new logistics centre. “This saves us return costs” and “processing time,” says Jiménez, allowing for faster stock reintegration, “which is the whole point,” to “be able to have returned items available again for our customers.” This integration of physical and online channels, also for returns, once again demonstrates the omnichannel nature the Spanish company has embraced. In fact, “a good part of the online sales” and orders “that leave from here in Illescas are generated in our own physical stores,” either because “we don't have the size or colour.” “The heart of Tendam used to be just the Aranjuez warehouse, but in response to e-commerce growth, we now have two hearts: Aranjuez and Illescas.” “This is a very important part of the company's development strategy for the coming years, which will also involve a major investment in technology,” continuing with the implementation of “the RFID technology we already have in place at Cortefiel and Springfield.”

On how exactly these facilities fit into Tendam's new growth roadmap, “Multiply has a very powerful vision for growth in the online market, and what they are asking of us is to accelerate in this channel internationally.” To that end, “having a logistics capacity with this centre, with the possibility of scaling its capacity, has put us ahead of Multiply's growth objectives.” “But that doesn't mean that, depending on where we grow geographically, we won't have to supplement this warehouse with other regional or local warehouses, like the one we already have in Mexico, from where we obviously serve online orders directly from within the country.”

As for how these centres operate and are expected to continue operating, all of Tendam's warehouses “are managed by a logistics operator. In the case of the two warehouses in Spain, this is ID Logistics, a French partner we have worked with for many years.” That doesn't mean “we don't have our own staff here; we have about six people who manage and supervise operations, but all personnel management, operators, etc., is handled by ID.” The same applies to transport, “which we also have outsourced.” Therefore, “we don't have our own lorries or drivers,” Jiménez clarifies, but “what we do is approve all the operators who work with us,” both in logistics at the centres and in transport. “We work with long-term relationships,” and the company's responsibility towards the workers in its value chain “is part of our code of ethics, not only in logistics but also with our product suppliers.” “We are responsible for ensuring our suppliers provide treatment that complies with international standards of respect and human rights”; “before working with a supplier, we evaluate them, then we conduct continuous assessments, and if this is breached, we stop working with them.”

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