Challenge: Spartan Kitchen Products was spending hours every week fulfilling orders manually – time that should have gone into product development, trade shows, and growth. Long lead times from China to Canada (6+ weeks), combined with duties and tariffs, tied up cash and limited expansion. Founders Shawn and Mikaela Numrich weren’t scaling – they were just keeping up.
Solution: By adopting Portless’s direct fulfillment model, Spartan reduced freight costs and tariff uncertainty, reduced lead times by 90%, and reclaimed 20+ hours per week. Same-day inventory injection and predictable pricing made international expansion viable across the UK, Australia, and New Zealand.
Company fulfillment metrics
Spartan Kitchen is a sustainable home goods brand making professional-grade kitchen tools accessible to everyday home cooks. Founded by husband-and-wife team Shawn and Mikaela Numrich, Spartan specializes in premium peelers, shredders, and slicers designed for durability, ergonomics, and long-term use.
The company’s origin story began in 2013 while Shawn and Mikaela were backpacking through Australia. After discovering a natural talent for sales, what started as a weekend job turned into months of selling kitchen tools across Australia and New Zealand.
When they returned to Canada, Shawn realized the products they’d been selling overseas didn’t exist locally. After a year working with manufacturers on prototypes, Spartan Kitchen launched at a small Christmas market in 2017. They sold through their first 2,000 units within weeks – proving demand, but also exposing the operational limits of their fulfillment model.
Today, Spartan operates as a true partnership: Shawn leads product development and manufacturer relationships, while Mikaela runs operations, contractors, and event logistics.
As Spartan scaled both ecommerce and trade show sales – especially post-COVID – fulfillment began consuming an outsized amount of founder time. What looked simple on paper quickly became a daily drain: printing labels, packing orders, fixing mistakes, handling stock issues, and coordinating shipping.
“What sounds like an hour of work turns into three or four,” Shawn explains. “And suddenly you’re not thinking about growth – you’re just getting orders out.”
Beyond time, the traditional supply chain introduced serious friction. Inventory took six weeks plus to arrive from China. Each shipment required upfront payments for freight, duties, tariffs, and packaging. When demand spiked, Spartan had no choice but to delay shipping or pause sales entirely.
The result was stalled momentum: product development slowed, international expansion felt out of reach, and despite strong demand, the business had no breathing room.
The turning point came through a personal recommendation when a family member recommended Portless – a fulfillment partner operating directly out of Shenzhen, the same city where Spartan’s products were manufactured. The value was immediately compelling: direct fulfillment with predictable 5–8 business day global delivery.
Shawn approached the decision analytically. One alternative was hiring someone locally to handle fulfillment, but that would add management overhead without addressing the root problems – freight costs, tariffs, and long lead times. Instead of solving the bottleneck, it would simply shift it.
Instead, Spartan compared the full cost of both models. On one side: ocean freight, duties, tariffs, packaging, warehouse space, and founder time. On the other: Portless’s storage and pick-pack-ship pricing.
The math was clear.
“The time factor was number one,” Shawn says. “But the fact that the costs actually worked in our favor was a huge bonus."
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With both trust and ROI validated, Spartan didn’t overthink the decision. The transition required only a couple calls and minimal setup, allowing the team to move quickly and shift focus back to growth instead of operations.
"Whereas with Portless, it was a couple of calls with you guys and a little bit of paperwork and everything was already set up there. So it was just an easy, smooth transition." – Shawn Numrich
Inventory that once took six weeks plus to arrive was now available the same day it left the factory, with orders shipping globally the next morning. Lead times dropped by 90%, dramatically improving inventory velocity, forecasting accuracy, and overall operational flexibility.
Onboarding was frictionless. Portless handled the logistics end-to-end, allowing Spartan to stay focused on customers, products, and growth rather than fulfillment mechanics.
Most importantly, fulfillment stopped consuming Shawn’s attention. The three to four hours previously spent packing orders every few days were reinvested into product development, trade show planning, and strategic expansion. That reclaimed time also unlocked new markets that had once been cost-prohibitive, making international growth across the UK, Australia, and New Zealand economically viable.
“Now with Portless, it’s just running in the background,” says Shawn. “We’re not constantly thinking about fulfillment anymore, and that alone frees up so much mental space to focus on growing the business.”
The transformation in Spartan's business goes far beyond faster shipping and streamlined operations. Portless fundamentally changed what's possible for the company.
Time Reclaimed: By eliminating 3–4 hours of fulfillment work every 2–3 days, Spartan reclaimed approximately 20+ hours per week. That’s the equivalent of hiring a part-time employee – except instead of managing fulfillment, Shawn and Mikaela are using that time for product development, market expansion, and strategic growth initiatives.
Cost Savings: Despite moving to a direct fulfillment service, Spartan reduced total landed costs by eliminating ocean freight, customs duties, tariffs, packaging supplies, and warehouse overhead.
Lead Time Reduction: Spartan cut lead times by 90% – from 6+ weeks down to same-day inventory injection and next-day shipping availability.
Global Expansion Unlocked: With Portless offering consistent global pricing, international markets like the UK, Australia, and New Zealand became economically viable overnight. Spartan is now actively planning expansion into four new international markets in 2026.
“Before Portless, international expansion just felt out of reach,” Shawn explains. “Now it actually feels doable – and that’s completely changed how we think about the future of the business.”
Social Impact: Spartan partners with Thrive for Good, contributing $1 from every purchase to build community gardens in developing countries. Each $1,000 raised funds one garden that feeds 40 people for life. With Portless enabling global expansion, Spartan can now grow these "Spartan Gardens" from a worldwide customer base – turning business growth into multiplied social impact.
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For Spartan, growth wasn’t limited by demand – it was limited by logistics. Once the founders evaluated the true cost of fulfillment, the decision became obvious.
“I would recommend Portless for anybody who has a product that's small and that ships easily. It costs the same, if not less, and you don’t have to worry about all the other logistics,” says Shawn.
With fulfillment off their plate, Spartan is no longer just keeping up. They’re launching new products, expanding internationally, and building a business designed to scale.
Book a demo to see how Portless can transform your ecommerce logistics.
