ASOS Calls On UK Brand Partners To Strengthen Commitments To Transparency And Responsible Action

Image Courtesy of ASOS

After ASOS dropped Boohoo amid allegations of labour exploitation, brands stocked by ASOS with UK manufacturing footprint have now been asked to sign up to Transparency Pledge and Fast Forward auditing methodology

LONDON, August 2020:  ASOS, one of the world’s leading online fashion retailers, today announces the strengthening of its third-party brand engagement programme with four new commitments required for brands sold on ASOS that manufacture in the UK.ASOS has asked brands to commit to taking the following stepsby the end of the year

1.Signing the Transparency Pledge, joining ASOS, H&M, Inditex, Next, Pentland Brands, and numerous others in regularly and publicly disclosing a list of manufacturing sites in their supply chain;

2.Mapping and having visibility on all parts of their UK garment manufacturing supply chain, and providing evidence of visibility to ASOS;

3.Identifying risks within their supply base and strategies to mitigate this risk and, if necessary, sharing this information with ASOS so it can support the partner with addressing these issues;

4.Joining the Fast Forward auditing programme and committing to tackle any issues identified through this process.

These four commitments will bring the UK production policies of ASOS’ brand partners in line with those implemented by ASOS for the manufacture of ASOS Design products in the UK.

The country is an initial focus area for ASOS as part of its third-party brand engagement programme, with further international plans to be rolled out over the coming months.

To help its brand partners reach these commitments, ASOS will continue to share its expertise and experience in this area.

In September 2020, it will host a collaborative workshop together with the Fast Forward audit organisation and Fast Forward members, to support its brand partners in signing up to Fast Forward in the coming months.

Nick Beighton, ASOS CEO, said: “When we launched our third-party brand engagement programme at the start of 2018, we set out Five Minimum Requirements that we wanted the brands we sold on site to sign up to by 2020. We’ve been working hard to support our brand partners to achieve this aim, and with the target now in sight, we want to be even more ambitious –and ask those brands that manufacture in the UK to bring their supply chains in line with our own, if they are not already.”

“We believe the four commitments we have set out this week are critical enablers to improving sourcing standards across the UK. We hope that our brand partners will join us in striving to reach this goal, with the continued support of ASOS, Fast Forward, and other leading lights in UK manufacturing.”

In the last financial year, third-party brands accounted for approximately 60% of the products sold on ASOS. More information on ASOS’ third-party brands programme is available here.