Sustainable fashion specialist Advanced Clothing Solutions (ACS) has secured £10 million of fresh investment in support of its rental, subscription and resale fulfilment operation in Lanarkshire.
The company, which bills itself as the UK's leading circular and sustainable fashion enabler, has partnered with specialist fund manager Circularity Capital. Established in 2015, Edinburgh-based Circularity invests in small and medium-sized businesses operating within Europe's circular economy.
ACS chief executive Andrew Rough said Circularity has a "proven track record" in supporting business growth that will support the company's expansion ambitions.
“I am delighted to partner with Circularity Capital, this strategic partnership recognises our objective of creating one of Europe’s largest circular fashion solutions providers specialising in clothing rental, subscription and resale," he said.
Set up in 1997, ACS has the largest laundry facility in Scotland and operated for many years in the formalwear hire sector. When that market ground to a halt during the first lockdowns of 2020, ACS shifted it focus to servicing the emerging market for renting everyday clothing.
It works with fashion brands and retailers such as Moss Bros, Slaters Menswear, Monsoon and LK Bennett from its 19,000sq metre automated facility in Eurocentral, where more than six million clothing garments are kept in circulation every year. The company provides a complete rental, subscription and resale fulfilment service and has storage for more than three million items of clothing.
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Andrew Shannon, founding partner at Circularity Capital, added: “The average European throws away 11kg of textiles every year, and around the world a truckload of textiles is landfilled or incinerated every second.
"ACS provides the capabilities and processes to enable retailers to scale their rental, subscription and resale ambitions with ease, transforming the industry from a traditional take-make-dispose model to one of reuse and resale.”
[1] https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/QANDA_22_2015
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