“The Industry is facing the largest surplus stock challenge they have ever faced”
We have been doing live event surplus stock sales for 25 years, until lockdown brought them to a halt. On one of many socially distanced walks last year, we wondered what would be happening to all that unsold stock.
When we started looking into it we were amazed by the size of the waste issue in fashion and retail.
In recent years one luxury clothing brand admitted incinerating £28m of unsold stock in a single year, a practice that extends to £800m a year globally. And across the world, 92 million tons of clothes become waste every year – ‘the equivalent of a full rubbish truck heading for landfill every second’.
Brands don’t want to publicly discount their products and risk cheapening their image, so often waste has been the default option for surplus stock. And with lockdown having closed shops and reduced demand for work and party wear, retailers are facing the biggest stock clearance in decades.
We want to play our small part in giving this stock a second chance to find a good owner and so far the response has been amazing.
In addition to running sales, EarlyBird will donate the stock its brands don’t sell to Smart Works, which provides free clothes and training for unemployed women with an upcoming job interview. Donation is another way brands can tackle this problem.
If our Members can get a bargain, and our brands can reduce waste, we’ll be very happy with our little venture.
Charlotte & Katy x