No intercontinental leg
An EU-produced order moves by ground carrier inside one logistics network. An order produced in the US adds air or ocean freight, extra sorting hubs and time-zone hand-offs before it enters the EU at all.
Lead-time data · 2026
Made in Europe, dispatched in Europe: the lead-time structure.
Where a product is made decides most of when it arrives — and what happens to it on the way. This page collects the real, published dispatch windows across the Fabrixa catalog and sets them against the published lead times and routing of two well-known fabric printers — Spoonflower (US) and Contrado (UK): the shipping leg, the customs border and the returns address that EU-produced orders never see.
Fastest hub
2–3
Business days to dispatch for sublimation home textiles from the Netherlands — the fastest window in the catalog.
Catalog-wide
2–9
Business days to dispatch across all 48 catalog products, made to order in Portugal, Spain or the Netherlands.
Customs borders
0
Orders to EU customers stay inside the single market: no import clearance, no surprise charges at the door.
The data
Dispatch windows across the catalog.
Every catalog product page publishes its own made-to-order dispatch window. Aggregated across all 48 products, they fall into four bands — by product range and production country.
Sublimation home · Netherlands2–3
Fabrics by the metre · Portugal5–7
Home textiles · Spain5–10
Apparel · Portugal6–9
024681012 days
BUSINESS DAYS TO DISPATCH, MADE TO ORDER · PER-PRODUCT WINDOWS ON EVERY CATALOG PAGE · ESTIMATES, NOT GUARANTEES · AGGREGATED 25-08-2026 (N=48)
The structure
Three routings to the same EU doorstep.
Serious print operations are all reasonably quick at making the product — Contrado publishes impressively fast production times. The difference is everything that happens after dispatch: a US or UK order to an EU customer crosses an ocean and/or a customs border before it crosses a doorstep. All competitor figures below are quoted from their own published pages (retrieved 26-08-2026).
| Fabrixa (EU-produced) | Spoonflower | Contrado | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Published production window | 2–9 business days, published per product | Volume-based estimate; paid “Guaranteed” ships ≤5 business days | Most products made in 2–3 days; 95.4% ship within 48 h |
| Production location | Portugal · Spain · the Netherlands | United States (“US-based facilities”) | United Kingdom (London, in-house) |
| Route to an EU customer | Ground carriers inside the single market | Transatlantic shipment into the EU | UK→EU cross-border shipment |
| Customs into the EU | None inside the EU single market | Yes — EU import clearance | Yes since Brexit — duties-paid offered for most countries |
| Import charges for EU customers | None — no charges at the door | Import charges possible on delivery | Mostly prepaid (their policy); charges “beyond our control” possible |
| Returns address | Inside the EU | United States | United Kingdom |
DISPATCH ≠ DELIVERY: CARRIER TRANSIT COMES ON TOP FOR EVERY PROVIDER — FOR EU-PRODUCED ORDERS THAT LEG IS A GROUND CARRIER INSIDE THE SINGLE MARKET.
Why it compounds
Every hand-off adds calendar time — and failure modes.
No customs lottery
Import clearance is the least predictable step of an international parcel: inspection queues, paperwork and possible import VAT or duty collected at the door — from your end customer. Inside the single market that step does not exist.
Returns stay in the EU
When something needs to go back, an EU returns address is a days-long domestic shipment — not an international one your customer pays for and abandons. That difference shows up directly in review scores.
Methodology & sources
Where these figures come from.
Published per product
The dispatch bands aggregate the made-to-order windows published on all 48 catalog product pages (collected 25-08-2026). They are estimates, not guarantees: material availability, batch scheduling, volume peaks, holidays and carrier delays can affect them — the full shipping policy is on the shipping page.
Their pages, their words
Spoonflower figures come from their Help Center (production times and delivery options; production “completed in our US-based facilities”). Contrado figures come from their production-and-shipping page (“most products made and delivered in 2–3 days”, “95.4% ship within 48 hours”, made in-house in London, duties-paid offered for most countries). Both retrieved 26-08-2026; both providers publish faster or comparable production windows — the comparison is about routing, not craftsmanship. Corrections welcome via our contact page.
See your exact dates
Every product shows its own window.
Pick a product, see its dispatch window and live tier price, and order from one piece — produced in Portugal, Spain or the Netherlands and shipped white-label under your brand.