By Karen Peattie
A NORTH Lanarkshire-based fashion rental and resale business has secured £2.5 million of new equity from its majority shareholder as it targets growth in the emerging market for renting everyday clothing, a growing trend as consumers turn away from so-called “fast fashion”.
ACS Clothing, which operates out of fully-automated 85,000sqft premises at Eurocentral off the M8, says the new equity from Industrial Lending, managed by Boost & Co, will allow the business to increase capacity as it brings on new clients, and also take on more staff. It gives Industrial Lending an majority stake in the business.
The formalwear hire firm said its business “fell off a cliff” when weddings were postponed during lockdown last year, resulting in staff layoffs. It has the largest laundry facility in Scotland, predominantly used to clean the formalwear rented out by the company.
While formal hire remains a key component of ACS’ core business – the company partners with several multichannel retailers including Slaters and Moss Bros – it has stepped up its presence in the everyday clothing rental sector, which chief finance officer Andrew Rough has described as the “Netflix model for clothing”.
It has contracts with Hirestreet, MyWardrobeHQ and Rotaro among others.
ACS, set up as a Highland and formal hire store about 25 years ago, processes returns for online retailer Asos and the Foschini Group (TFG), whose brands include Whistles and Hobbs. This year, it teamed up with US fashion tech platform CaaStle to bring subscription rental clothing to the UK market.
It offers “circular, sustainable clothing solutions at scale”, enabling brands to introduce a rental or resale model by offering an end-to-end fulfilment service that includes warehousing, order management, RFID technology integration, eco-friendly ozone cleaning, clothing repair, and picking, packing and dispatch of orders.
Mr Rough noted: “There needs to be other options for retailers and consumers, and that’s where rental and resale comes in.
“The fresh investment of £2.5m will allow us to invest further in our world-class facility and grow our team to support our existing and new customers. We wish to thank Kim Martin and Richard Hallett of Boost & Co for their support in obtaining the new funding and sharing our vision to offer fashion brands an alternative to the linear model they have traditionally adopted.”
ACS’s aim to support brands in offering a more sustainable solution has been recognised by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the largest global network of circular economy businesses.
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