Nick Beighton of Asos and Anders Kristiansen (pictured) of New Look have spoken out over a shocking exposé of working conditions in clothing factories in Leicester, which is home to a third of the domestic clothing manufacturing industry.
Both companies have said they are looking to manufacture more in the UK, but are reluctant because of unsafe and illegal conditions. A report in January found that workers in British textile factories were being paid as little as £3 an hour, half the legal minimum wage, to make clothes for companies including New Look and River Island.
New Look already spend £35m on orders from factories in Leicester – a number that Mr Kristiansen says the company could double, but added that he was “afraid of using these units because what is going on is just so plainly wrong.”
Three years ago, New Look used 118 factories across the UK to manufacture their clothes. Today, following a spate of failed inspections, that number is at just 12.
“It’s a ticking time bomb,” Kristiansen told The Telegraph. “Many of these factories have unsafe conditions with fire escapes blocked up, workers exploited and paid far below minimum wage. What happens if there is another massive fire, what will it take for people to wake up?”
The government is looking at legislation that will give councils the power to close down factories that break the rules, but both chiefs are frustrated by a lack of progress. Kristiansen is particularly perturbed by the falling standards.
“We have worked so hard to improve manufacturing standards in Asia and there are these conditions happening at home,” he said. “There are already laws that should be preventing this, they just need to be enforced. We are saying, if you enforce the laws, we will invest.”
