What a waste!
Fury as Burberry burns £28m of its unwanted designer goods... JUST to keep label fashionable
LUXURY brand Burberry destroyed more than £28 million worth of its unwanted products over the past year.
The clothes, accessories and cosmetics were burnt in a practice common among designer labels which do not want their products to end up being sold off cheaply via unofficial outlets.
Retailers have also described it as a measure to protect intellectual property and prevent illegal counterfeiting by ensuring the supply chain remains intact.
More than £90 million of Burberry products have been destroyed over the past five years, including £28.6 million in the past year, according to the company’s annual report.
Greenpeace yesterday branded the practice the ‘fashion industry’s dirty secret’ and called for the production of goods which were not needed to be slowed down. The campaign group’s Dr Kirsten Brodde said: ‘The growing volumes of over-stock point to over-production, and instead of slowing down production, Burberry is incinerating perfectly new clothes and products.
‘No matter whether expensive or cheap, our current fashion production is focused on economic growth, churning out unsustainable quantities of clothes. This unavoidably leads to growing mountains of fashion waste.’
Mike Childs, from Friends of the Earth, said: ‘Burning clothes is a shocking waste of resources, showing no regard for people in the UK who have to scour charity shops to put a shirt on their back, nor to the millions overseas living in poverty.’
Maria Malone, lecturer in fashion business at Manchester Metropolitan University, told the BBC: ‘The reason they (Burberry) are doing this is so that the market is not flooded with discounts. They don’t want Burberry products to get into the hands of anyone who can sell them at a discount and devalue the brand.’
Burberry, a favourite of celebrities such as Victoria Beckham and Rita Ora, said it destroyed only items that carried its trademark and worked only with specialist companies which were able to harness the energy from the process.
The British brand said last year was unusual as it had to destroy a large amount of cosmetic items after signing a new deal with US firm Coty. As Coty would be making new stock, Burberry had to dispose of old products.
A spokesman said: ‘Burberry has careful processes in place to minimise the amount of excess stock we produce. On the occasions when disposal of products is necessary, we do so in a responsible manner and we continue to seek ways to reduce and revalue our waste.’
Burberry’s clothing is priced at the high end of fashion retail, with men’s polo shirts selling for up to £250 and its famous trench coats costing £1,500. Founded in 1856, Burberry has 242 retail stores, 154 concessions, 52 outlets and 46 franchise stores across the world. The company said it took its environmental obligations seriously, and recently joined the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Make Fashion Circular initiative to prevent waste in the industry.
Burberry is gearing up for the first collection from its new chief creative officer, former Givenchy designer Riccardo Tisci. The brand is also collaborating with veteran British designer Vivienne Westwood, who is creating pieces for the brand that will be sold from December.
Yesterday a Burberry source dismissed the claim that another reason for destroying stock is that it does not want its products to be worn by the ‘wrong people’ after emerging on to ‘grey markets’.
‘Destroying products is common practice for the luxury and broader retail industry, and carried out to protect intellectual property and protect against illegal counterfeiting,’ the source said. ‘It is not to stop the “wrong people” buying Burberry products.
‘ Products are destroyed either because they’ve been in stores and not sold, or because they were products which were in development and have never gone on sale.
‘You don’t want the clothes sitting in a warehouse where they can get stolen and end up being sold on the internet or via other unofficial markets at knock down prices.’
Last year Richemont – which owns Cartier and Montblanc – admitted to buying back £ 430 million worth of their unsold timepieces over the previous two years, only to dismantle them.
‘Shocking waste of resources’