Marks & Spencer UK mends clothes

UK (Commonwealth) _ Marks & Spencer announced the first-ever introduction of a specialized clothes repair service. Launching in August, the project seeks to repurpose clothing products and is a component of Marks & Spencer’s Plan A circular economy program.

According to recent data from M&S, just 10% of people are self-assured enough to fix their own clothing. Additionally, it was shown that 60% of customers want merchants to provide additional services that help reduce their carbon impact.

These realizations prompted M&S to collaborate with SOJO, a specialist in clothes repair and modifications. Josephine Philips founded SOJO in 2021 with the goal of lowering the cost of tailoring and repairs.

An average of 38 pieces of clothes are not being used out of 1.6 billion wardrobes in the UK, according to the climate action NGO WRAP. Launching in August, the M&S Fixed by SOJO center will assist M&S customers in giving their clothing “another life” and minimizing waste. The retailer’s Plan A road map to advance the circular economy will include this.

The collaboration expands on M&S and Oxfam’s well-established garment donation program, which has gathered over 36 million articles of clothing and raised an estimated £23 million to combat global poverty.

Customers of M&S will be able to choose and schedule a variety of personalized repair services using straightforward web forms via a dedicated online portal. M&S apparel may be brought in for repairs, with prices starting at £5, and fixed by SOJO’s in-house staff before being sent back to the customer’s door in seven to 10 days.

 New life for clothes

Richard Price, managing director of M&S’s apparel and home division, discussed the new initiative by saying, “At M&S, exceptional-quality goods are at the basis of everything we undertake, and we want to make sure that all of our clothes are too excellent to waste.”

“We’re going to make even easier for customers to provide their clothes another life through the introduction of our repair service, whether they’re using our new repair service or our long-standing clothes-recycling scheme.”

“It has always been a core mission of ours at SOJO to make clothes repair mainstream and for extending the life of as many garments as possible,” said Philips, the founder and CEO of SOJO.

The fact that M&S has decided to start the repair service with us at SOJO excites me much since it’s a huge step in the direction of that goal.

As a brand that has stayed a mainstay in practically every British home and closet, this collaboration will significantly increase the accessibility, ease, and convenience of repairs for the general public. In addition, having M&S join our Pledge to Repair gives our appeal for industry-wide reform in the UK even more weight as one of the oldest British businesses.

Often shortened to M&S and referred to as just “Marks” or “Marks & Sparks,” Marks and Spencer plc is a large, international British retailer with its headquarters located in London, England. It specializes in selling apparel, cosmetics, home goods, and food items.

Thomas Spencer and Michael Marks established M&S in Leeds in 1884. The firm said in its 2024 results that it intended to close 180 full-line and 420 food outlets in the UK, citing higher operating costs associated with older operations.It stresses the exclusivity and elegance of its food and beverages through its television advertising. Additionally, it provides an online meal delivery service via a partnership with Ocado.

The firm made history in 1998 by being the first British retailer to earn a pre-tax profit of over £1 billion, but it was caught off guard by a sharp decline that surprised both the company and its stockholders. Early in the twenty-first century, as the corporation discontinued its classic St. Michael brand, food sales rose but apparel sales decreased. The business started selling branded products, such Kellogg’s corn flakes, in November 2008.

On May 22, 2018, it was officially announced that as part of a “radical” strategy, more than 100 outlets will close by 2022. M&S said on August 18, 2020, that they would eliminate 7,000 positions during the following three months due to the COVID-19 epidemic. As part of its recovery strategy, the firm stated in May 2021 that it will shut an additional 30 stores over the following ten years.