A look back at 2025

2025 has been another incredible — and incredibly busy — year.

We sent out record numbers of costumes every single month, we hit our annual target within nine months, we costumed more dancers than ever before, supported more dancers and dance schools than ever before, and if that wasn't enough, we moved the whole business to a brand new home!

So what have we learnt this year?

Most people book on Tuesdays, followed closely by Mondays. The start of the week (Monday–Wednesday) sees significantly more bookings than the end of the week, with Fridays and Saturdays being the quietest.

• Peak time: Midday (12–2 PM) — the lunchtime rush
• Morning lift: 9–11 AM — strong activity before midday
• Evening spike: around 7 PM — a smaller peak after classes finish
• Quiet hours: 11 PM–7 AM — as expected, very few bookings

The data shows a clear pattern: most people book during breaks in their day or once teaching ends. It’s a fascinating insight into how and when dance schools do their planning — and it helps us plan better too.

But there was something bigger...

We needed more space.

Back in 2020, I wrote about moving into a new warehouse and how much easier everything would be with more room.

Five short years later, we had completely outgrown it.

In 2023, I was writing about each month being 50% busier than the same month in 2022. That growth hasn’t slowed — it’s continued, year after year. As a business, we have to keep meeting that rising demand while still delivering the reliability our customers expect.

We’re committed to building a sustainable, long-term business. We don’t have investors. We don’t have an exit plan. Everything we do is driven by reinvesting profits back into the business to better serve the UK dance community.

Hello Sparkle Fulfilment Centre

In October, we picked up the keys to our new Sparkle Fulfilment Centre — a facility more than 600% larger than our previous home.

This space gives us the capacity we desperately needed: not just for more costumes, but for improved systems, new capabilities, and room to scale for years to come. It represents the biggest investment we’ve ever made into the business — and into the dance community we serve.

It took a team of over 25 people several weeks to get everything installed and operational. Then, in just one weekend, we moved the entire company. It was long, stressful and hard work… but we did it — all while still fulfilling bookings and without delaying a single customer.

Caring for costumes at a whole new level

The extra space has also allowed us to further improve how we care for our costumes.

Our laundry has quietly grown into one of the largest professional costume-care facilities in the UK, and this year’s expansion introduced the next step forward: cutting-edge Wet Care machines.

These machines are completely PERC-free, avoiding the harmful solvents used in traditional dry cleaning. They’re greener, safer, and far kinder to the complex fabrics dance costumes are made from.

More to come

Although we are very much up and running in the new space, there is still plenty more to do. Improved technology, smarter procedures and new layers of automation are already in development and nearly ready to roll out.

In December, we officially launched same-day fulfilment to support customers with last-minute panics. With the next rounds of improvements, we hope to roll out a more streamlined and scalable version of this in 2026 — along with other exciting features designed to make your life easier.

We know your world is stressful; our job is to take as much pressure off you as we can.

Looking forward, we are bigger, more capable and better equipped than ever — but still driven by the same values we had when I started the business in 2017: high-quality costumes at affordable prices, a seamless hire process, and doing business without compromising people or the planet.

Thank you for being part of this with us

We continue to look to the future and are constantly innovating, refining and improving everything we do to make Costume Source better for you, year after year.

All that leaves is for me to wish you a very happy, peaceful and safe Christmas and we’ll see you in the new year.

Aleksis Gailans

Founder, Costume Source