Redefining 3PL: How female-founded Virago Logistics is putting boutique brands first

Frustrated by the limitations of traditional fulfillment services, Jessica Breakwell and Em Frost set out on an ambitious journey to create Virago Logistics – a Melbourne-based company that has grown from a single warehouse to a million-dollar business serving boutique brands within just three years.

While the company initially began as a way for the co-founders to manage their own ventures – Georgia Elliot sleepwear and haircare brand Solibar, it quickly picked up the attention of other women-led businesses struggling to manage their day-to-day logistics needs.

Since starting in 2021, Virago has grown to serve 30 clients and shipped up to 300,000 orders for some of Australia’s well-loved e-commerce brands, including Sommer Swim, Twin Collective, and Bencer & Hazelnut.

The business name also reflects how the co-founders have carved out their niche in a male-dominated industry, with 'virago' referring to a woman who demonstrates masculine strength or spirit.

Speaking with Business News Australia, Frost shared that while the journey to this point has been challenging, it’s also been incredibly rewarding.

“We started with one warehouse and within two months we moved out of it because we had too little space and had to get another one. Then we ended up with another two warehouses. Before long, we were turning over a million dollars’ worth of revenue year-on-year,” says Frost, who alongside Breakwell was a finalist in the 2024 Melbourne Young Entrepreneur Awards. 

“We've grown a lot and have got about 30 clients in our remit. We wanted to do logistics differently because it was a very male-dominated industry and we find a lot of brand owners tend to be female and they want the knowledge and expertise that we really capture.”

To keep up with demand, Virago Logistics currently has three warehouses in the south-eastern Melbourne suburb of Cheltenham, situated around 18km from the city centre. The company works with a shipping partner to generate all the labels and optimise the fulfillment process. While it mostly specialises in maternity wear, kids' fashion, and baby clothes, Virago also works with a handful of male-owned businesses and is open to working with brands in other industries.  

To help with efficiencies, Virago is also part of the Global 3PL Network, allowing the company to offer same day dispatch Australia-wide with any of the partners in the network, which includes services like DHL, Sendle, FedEx, Australia Post, StarTrack, TNT and CouriersPlease.

Much of the focus for the business lies on working with clients to ensure the systems they use integrate easily with modern e-commerce platforms such as Shopify.

“Going into a logistics company that's got a massive warehouse management system, it meant that you're using a third-party service. It's so far connected from your store - it just didn't suit me and it didn't really suit a lot of our clients. A lot of them had their own systems because they've been doing it for 20 years. I'm like: What can we do on Shopify? How can we build that as the centre and then work out from there?

“We're looking for that woman's touch in terms of logistics. You don't want to be another number. You want to be the most important client that the business has.”

Familiar with running her own brand, Frost expressed that she understood it was hard for entrepreneurs to hand over the reins to another person.

“3PL (third-party logistics) in general is a hard sell. For a lot of people, their brand is their baby., They don't want orders to be incorrect or they don't want their customers to be unhappy and they've been doing a lot of things one way for a long time,” she said.

“I've had friends that have gone to 3PLs and they’re like: ‘They won’t even answer my text messages and it's been a week. I don't know where my stock is or stock’s gone missing.’ I mean situations like that do happen. But we're trying to actively try and change that because we want to offer a really high level of service and we have a great customer service team that's really on top of it - making sure that we're treating their brand like our brands.”

With a total of 14 staff, which includes casual workers, Virago Logistics also promotes a work culture that takes into account the busy schedules of busy mothers, with both co-founders having children of their own.

“I've got two kids Jess is about to have a second. Most of the women that we employ have children as well. We’ve been able to capture staff from a variety of different areas and a variety of different experiences.

“You’re wildly dreaming if you think you're going to create a business and then go: ‘I'm only going to work a couple of hours a day.’  You end up working 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It comes with its pros and cons. It means I can slip out here and there and on my own if I need to without asking for it or feeling bad like I used to.”

“Having a network around you of family members to support you really helps. I wouldn't be able to do it without my husband, parents or in-laws because there have been a lot of hours.”

When asked what advice she’d give to other women trying to succeed in a male-dominated field, Frost emphasised focusing on opportunity over the competition.

“Jess and I have this mentality that there is enough business in the world going around. Don't worry too much about competitors, because technically, we're in a consortium of potential competitors. We're focusing on what we're doing. If you can see a gap in a market where you could provide better goods or services than someone else, or create generation two or generation three of the offering, then you should absolutely do it and go forward,” she said.

“It hasn't come easily. Two women just rolling up to try and rent a warehouse wasn't the easiest feat - particularly in a business that had no trading history, that was hard work. Even dealing with freight companies and getting them to give us rates and offerings has been hard work as well because you're starting from scratch and you're just another competitor in the market.

“We've hit a lot of roadblocks, but we always think that someone's always had a problem before you, so there's always going to be a solution or a way that you can solve it.”