Cutter & Buck Opens Second Automated DC in Grand Prairie

Cutter & Buck has put a second automated distribution center into service in Grand Prairie, Texas, with more than 50,000 storage bins and throughput capacity above 1,200 bins per hour. For a brand whose fulfillment performance now sits at the center of its retail relationships, the number that matters most is the second one: 1,200 bins an hour is the pace at which the company can turn inventory sitting on a shelf into an order moving out the door.

The Seattle-based apparel brand confirmed the new site this week. It becomes the company's second automated distribution facility, a doubling of the fulfillment architecture that its wholesale, e-commerce and corporate channels depend on. The Grand Prairie location places the operation in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, one of the country's densest concentrations of distribution real estate.

What does the new site actually do?

The facility's design revolves around two figures. The first is storage density: over 50,000 bins hold finished apparel ready for picking. The second is speed: the automated system is equipped to process more than 1,200 of those bins every hour.

Together, those numbers describe a goods-to-person operation rather than a traditional pick-and-walk warehouse. In a goods-to-person setup, the automation — not the worker — brings inventory to the packing station. The 1,200-bins-per-hour figure is the clearest signal of that design, because bin-based shuttle and storage systems are typically rated on exactly this metric.

For context on scale: 1,200 bins per hour works out to one bin moving through the system every three seconds. A single shift of sustained peak throughput would therefore put tens of thousands of bin movements behind the site's daily order flow.

Why a second automated site, and why Texas?

Cutter & Buck's decision to add a second automated facility, rather than expand a single site, reflects a pattern now common across apparel fulfillment. Two distribution centers shorten the average distance between inventory and the end customer, which compresses delivery windows — the metric that marketplaces and retail partners increasingly police through their seller scorecards.

Grand Prairie sits inside the Dallas–Fort Worth logistics market, where interstates, parcel hub access and a large labor pool have made the metroplex a default choice for national fulfillment networks. Locating there positions the new site to serve the central United States and to split national volume with the company's existing operation.

What are the commercial consequences?

For Cutter & Buck itself, the stakes are straightforward. Apparel is a returns-heavy, size-heavy category: a single style can occupy a dozen bins across sizes and colors, which makes bin-level storage and automated retrieval a direct answer to the category's inventory complexity. The 50,000-bin capacity gives the brand room to hold that assortment close to demand.

For the carriers and parcel operators that serve the site, a new high-throughput DC in Dallas–Fort Worth means incremental package volume entering the network from a proven logistics node. For the systems integrator and automation vendor behind the installation, the project adds a second reference in apparel — a category where goods-to-person retrofits have been accelerating as brands chase same-day and next-day promises.

For wholesale and corporate-channel customers, the practical effect should be shorter lead times on replenishment orders routed through the Texas site. The company frames the investment as a fulfillment boost, and the throughput number is the mechanism: more bins processed per hour means more orders released per shift.

What comes next?

The Grand Prairie facility is now the second pillar of Cutter & Buck's automated fulfillment footprint, and its 1,200-bins-per-hour ceiling gives the brand measurable headroom as order volumes grow.