Asos pulled plan to use more Leicester factories due to welfare worry that now plagues Boohoo and Quiz
Online fashion retailer Asos attempted to triple its UK manufacturing operations using more Leicester factories two years ago but quietly scrapped the plan amid concerns over poor working conditions in factories there.
In the subsequent three years, it has dropped two factories in the town due to poor ethical standards. The proportion of its supplies from the UK have actually halved to less than 1.5% as it sourced more from foreign companies.
The revelations shine a new light on Boohoo and Quiz’s apparent failure to spot poor working conditions at suppliers there.
In 2017, Asos chief Nick Beighton and then-New Look boss Anders Kristiansen visited Leicester to meet manufacturers, Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby, HMRC and the Home Office's Gangmasters And Labour Abuse Authority in the hope of massively expanding their UK sourcing.
However, they ended up reporting concerns to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, they reported that they had been concerned about “illegal wages, right to work, poor health and safety standards, subcontracting and vulnerable workers.”
They wrote: “Those factories operating outside of legal standards are undermining our efforts to improve standards in UK manufacture and increase our sourcing in the Leicester area.”
The seven trusted suppliers in the city it has retained are compliant with its standards and have seen bigger orders as Asos has grown. However, a bigger proportion of Asos's growth has gone to other countries.
Asos and the now-struggling New Look had been trying to encourage Leicester firms to sign up to its Fast Forward programme, which it launched in 2014 with other retailers to audit the conditions at its supply chains.
New Look, which is now fighting for its survival, said at the time that it wanted to double Leicester production but Kristiansen said he was “afraid of using these units because what is going on is just so plainly wrong. It is a ticking time bomb.”
Fashion sources said more UK retailers and designers need to seek domestic suppliers to give manufacturers here the critical mass to run at Fast Forward standards.
Asos has quarterly profit figures due on Wednesday.
Company sources said part of the reason it had moved to more overseas suppliers was the expertise there, rather than just ethics. Its big push into part dresses, for example, was naturally going to be supplied from India which has the best skills for embellished products.
In London, Asos uses the ethical manufacturer Fashion Extra in Haringey.
