Goodlids

Dane Watson founded Goodlids in late 2019 after discovering hemp as a textile and questioning why more manufacturers weren’t using it.

Hemp is the strongest natural fibre; breathable, antimicrobial, and durable all at once. The fact that it elevates the effects of whatever it’s blended with makes the material particularly compelling for a clothing brand.

Goodlids has since combined hemp with organic cotton, recycled nylon, Tencel, and wool, and the results speak for themselves.

The challenge was that the market hadn’t caught up. What existed was either DIY or firmly rooted in hemp’s counter-culture associations. Dane saw the opportunity to take the material mainstream and built a brand around that conviction.

For the first three to four years, Goodlids grew organically within New Zealand, where the company was founded. Then, in 2023, the team started looking outward. In 2024, they came to London to open a pop-up store as part of a market validation exercise that confirmed what they’d suspected. The appetite was there, and what they needed now was the infrastructure to meet it.

Why J&J Global Fulfilment?

Goodlids is a nine-person team. When Dane was making decisions about fulfilment infrastructure in the northern hemisphere, he needed to move fast and get it right. He spoke to a number of potential partners, but what distinguished J&J was the clear pathway to global scale.

Global infrastructure from day one

A lot of the other partners Dane considered were largely focused in specific regions; either UK-focused or EU-focused. J&J offered both the UK and EU, as well as a network that extended to Australia and North America as well.

For a brand already serving customers in Japan, Canada, Australia, from its New Zealand fulfilment centre, the ability to onboard a single global partner rather than building a patchwork of regional relationships was decisive.

Total transparency on costs

Dane had been through enough supplier relationships to know the pitfalls. Getting into a relationship, committing time and resource, and then uncovering unexpected charges is a story that a lot of eCom brands will be familiar with.

His experience with J&J was different. The full price book including every possible charge was laid out from the start, and meant he could make decisions with complete information. There were no surprises buried in the fine print.

Onboarding across time zones

Setting up critical business infrastructure from the other side of the world is a specific kind of challenge. Dane is based in New Zealand, which meant early mornings and late nights, and a lot of trust placed in people he’d never met in person.

Katie, who led the onboarding, gave him a virtual tour of the warehouse, fielded every question and concern, and laid out a clear roadmap for what the onboarding process would look like. When she handed over to Sheetal, who manages the ongoing relationship, the continuity was seamless. The GPSR compliance work needed to legally operate in the EU was handled without drama.

Growth that speaks for itself

The impact of local fulfilment on Goodlids’ UK and EU business has been significant. UK and EU consumers understand what cross-border shopping involves. They know about duties, taxes, and longer lead times. Removing those friction points both improves the customer experience for existing customers whilst converting customers who wouldn’t have bought at all.

The numbers reflect that. Last year, the UK and EU accounted for around 16% of Goodlids’ revenue. This year, that figure is already over 40%, and that growth hasn’t come at the expense of other markets. Overall revenue has grown. The UK has scaled roughly 3 to 4x. The EU is up approximately 3x.

A platform that stays out of the way

Dane’s operations and customer service teams use ControlPort™ day to day to check order status, arrange incoming stock, and manage the operational flow from the other side of the world. What he values most is the things that don’t happen; they rarely feel the need to call customer support. The platform gives them what they need to resolve things themselves.