Increased Circularity

In October 2022 we launched our Repair, Restore and Refresh service in all in all UK shops, excluding concessions, outlets and airports, to give purchases a second life, bring them back to their former glory or simply freshen them up. This service extends the life of Paul Smith purchases enabling customers to keep wearing their beloved Paul Smith pieces for years to come.

In 2021, we created an unsaleable product policy for our retail stores which provides us with a solution to products that may have otherwise ended up going to waste for a variety of reasons. Instead, we offer these products to our staff, donate, or recycle them to ensure they do not end up in landfill. We are already seeing the benefits of this policy.

To help with our zero waste to landfill journey, we introduced fabric recycling bins in our Nottingham design studio, which have already saved over 500kg of fabric from going to landfill – the equivalent of 3,300 T-shirts. We work with First Mile who collect the fabric off-cuts and repurpose them into something new before incinerating anything remaining for energy.

Leftover fabric from production has also been given new life as product bags for our outlet shops, small gift bags for our shops in the UK and, more recently, as face masks for use during the Covid-19 pandemic.

We are committed to reducing waste and consumption while increasing reuse, repurposing and recycling. This is a policy that’s applied across Paul Smith, from our shops through to our warehouses, offices, and design studios.

Additional measures include:

• Reusing furniture around the company before being sold to employees, third parties or sent to auction.

• Reclaimed parquet flooring is used in almost of our shops.

• Display props and mannequins are reused around the business or within our wholesale merchandising areas.

• Sustainability is a key consideration in all shop design concepts.

• On a smaller scale, our offices and shops use Nespresso coffee pods, and we take advantage of the brand’s coffee pod recycling programme.

• In Paris, we have been working with Cedre, a recycling company, since 2012. Since the partnership began, we have recycled the equivalent of 180 trees from our Paris offices and showroom.