LaundRe Gives UK Brands a Local Solution for Reprocessing
A first-of-its-kind denim finishing hub is coming to the U.K. to support major denim brands and retailers. The brainchild of industry veteran Salli Deighton, LaundRe provides companies with easy access to technologies and services that would otherwise require a passport and a 12-week lead time.
“It’s come out of a need,” Deighton said about the new venture. “I got loads of phone calls from everybody asking me where they could reprocess pieces, especially after covid.”
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A short tube ride from their London headquarters will soon be Deighton’s response. Located in Canning Town in East London, the 4,500-square-foot facility will be home to a suite of sustainable finishing machinery including laser and ozone. There, LaundRe can take back stocks that have idled in warehouses for seasons, if not years, and refresh them with trending finishes and other experimental treatments.
Volume is not LaundRe’s endgame. Deighton said the new venture is focused on orders less than 300 pieces. The idea is if the product sells for a brand, LaundRe can share all the information straight back with the big suppliers. “I’m sure the whole world knows the state the U.K. is in,” she said. “Retailers are struggling, and they can’t get small runs and they can’t get anything reprocessed in their warehouses. So that’s what we’re trying to do.”
The company is also working toward nearshoring and is having conversations with manufacturers outside the U.K. to bring in some of their retailers’ unwashed stocks and wash them domestically.
“We’re trying to de-risk some of the business overseas, because when covid hit everybody pulled the plug on Bangladesh in the U.K. very badly. It was every man for themselves. And a lot of the factories got hurt, but by working with them and if we can trial things to market, we can remove some of that risk. It means buyers could buy a little bit better and plan better,” she said.
Though 70 million pairs of jeans are sold in the U.K. each year, Deighton said not even one is finished or reprocessed sustainably onshore. LaundRe’s goal is to “add value” to 1 percent of the 70 million by the end of 2027. “It’s tiny. We’re very small in the big picture,” she said. “We know that everybody’s still chasing margin. We still know that the big volume market is so important, but we’re going to be a little hub and a link between the big guys and the U.K. buyers.”
Brands are committed to becoming LaundRe customers with several signing letters of intent including River Island, Next and others.
Casting a wider net beyond denim will bring more opportunities. “I feel that’s what’s giving us a bit of a safety net because even though, at the moment, denim is off-trend in the U.K. this is a very flexible business model,” Deighton said. LaundRe has already done trials with T-shirts and non-denims it has garment dyed, lasered and processed. It can also clean and sterilize garments for brands’ elevated vintage programs.
“We can switch things around to something else quickly,” she said. “Who knows where it will go? It feels like we’re about to go down a very big rabbit hole and see where this technology will take us.”
