A Sunderland fashion business is preparing to launch a new brand of sustainable clothing after investing in a new head office and warehousing space in the city.
What About This? is an online fashion retailer that has recently grown its operations after making significant investments in the city.
The company is headed up by Laura Middleton, who took over the company in September 2018, and the firm has since grown to seven full-time members of staff and fulfils more than 3,000 orders every month.
Following its expansion in Sunderland What About This? is gearing up to launch its own brand of sustainable clothing.
Ms Middleton said: “As a business, we pride ourselves on being relatable by not trying to be anything that we’re not. We’re transparent in the fact that we wear the clothes ourselves and use the girls in our team as models whenever we promote our products.
“As for our range, our focus is on providing stylish and beautiful clothing for everyday women, as opposed to being just another ‘Instagram-perfect’ brand, and our own range – which we hope to launch in the spring – will give us the freedom to design products that we know our customers will love and are in-line with our company mission.”
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The company is also launching its own sustainability pledge – called What About The Environment? – as part of its efforts to tackle the fast fashion crisis. The campaign aims to encourage customers to rewear, recycle, or resell.
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It is also aiming to reduce its carbon footprint, with plans to become carbon neutral by offsetting its emissions, while also ploughing a significant sum into a new inventory monitoring and processing system.
Kat Quinn, a former stylist at ecommerce firm Pink Boutique, has also joined as the company’s new head of creative.
Commenting on the company’s decision to remain in Sunderland, Ms Middleton said: “We are very proud to be continuing to invest in Sunderland as it is a city we hold close to our hearts. When we were looking for warehousing space, we had so many people contact us from outside the city however moving elsewhere was never on the cards.
“The support provided by the team at Sunderland City Council was fantastic and helped us to not only ensure our premises were suitable for an ecommerce and distribution business like ourselves but also to incorporate our new inventory systems and really streamline our processes.
“We’ve also used so many of the city’s stunning outdoor spaces for our photoshoots and have worked closely with University of Sunderland to offer work experience placements to students and to collaborate on projects. It really has been the perfect place for us to start up and scale the business.”
Councillor Graeme Miller, leader of Sunderland City Council, said: “It wasn’t too long ago that Sunderland was named as one of the 海角视频’s fastest growing hubs for digital technology and when you hear success stories such as What About This?, it’s clear to see why.
“Laura and the team have done remarkably well to grow the business from what was a start-up venture just two years ago to a fast-growing ecommerce business fulfilling thousands of orders every month and we’re delighted to have been able to support them on their journey.”