There’s much more retailers and charities can do to strengthen their relationships and help reduce waste, while consumers simply expect retailers to be responsible organisations.
They were two key takeaways from a panel session at Retail Technology Show 2025, at the beginning of April, as fashion retailer New Look and disabled children’s charity Newlife were represented on stage.
Much of the conversation, which was chaired by former retail CTO Julian Burnett, focused on how to build more efficient and mutually beneficial partnerships between the private and charity sectors, and how to avoid fashion items ending up in landfill. But we also learnt about what’s on the mind of New Look sustainability boss Sue Fairley.
Fairley, whose full job title is senior head of ESG, sourcing, & quality at New Look, said: “Let’s talk about consumer expectation – consumers are definitely expecting we are doing responsible things in the way we bring our product into the business and what we do with anything that has seen its end of life, not just within New Look but also when the consumer is bored with it or finished with it.”
She added: “Our research has shown us, she [the customer] wants bang for her buck, she wants to know what is the responsible thing to do with a product and she wants to be directed in the right direction to be able to do that.”
Commenting on overstock or unwanted clothing in the business that needs to be moved on, Fairley commented: “We want to do the right thing with that stock. There’s no retailer I know that doesn’t want to do the right thing; it’s just making sure that we find the ways to do that.”
The charity sector is one destination for such overstock, and New Look and Newlife have a long running partnership in this regard.
Fiona Robinson, CEO of Newlife, estimated New Look had donated around 250,000 units of redundant stock to the charity in the last year, which had been sold on to create significant funds that have been directed to helping children who need support.
She suggested the charity sector has a bigger role to play in helping retailers use this route as part of their sustainability strategy.
“We want to be sitting around the table to understand what it is as charities we can provide, and be part of that circularity journey,” Robinson noted.
“We need to innovate. Wouldn’t it be great if we [charities] could create some kind of platform and use our resources together and help retailers.”
Robinson acknowledged retailers are “really busy” and finding trading tough right now, so “they don’t need hundreds of charities trying to get stock from them – there’s a real role for us to work together with other charities and aggregate the opportunity”.
In a nod to the need for more connectivity and sharing of and access to data, she also remarked: “We don’t know what we’re getting until the boxes arrive at the back door and that’s not OK going forward.”
She added: “We spend a lot of time and cost taking labels off products. We have a role in charities to provide an environment that brands are also proud of [in terms of] showcasing their stock.”
During the panel, Fairley talked up New Look’s work in being more sustainable – including through working with Wrap’s Textiles 2030 programme and SocialBox.biz, which takes unwanted laptops and tech from the retailer, refurbs them, and introduces the devices into communities as part of a digital inclusion agenda.
In a call to action aimed at encouraging the wider retail industry to find ways in which it can better connect with charities in the name of social and environmental good, Burnett said: “This is a movement, a mission – we have so much to go for as an industry.”
Read more about New Look on Green Retail World
[image credit: Green Retail World]
