Burberry destroys £28m worth of goods in anti-counterfeiting drive

BURBERRY destroyed more than £28m worth of its fashion and cosmetic products over the past year in a practice now common across the retail industry to guard against counterfeiting.

The luxury British brand burned the products, totalling £28.6m in value, including £10.4m of beauty items, according to detail in its annual report.

Destroying products has become common practice for the industry, with retailers describing it as a measure to protect intellectual property and prevent illegal counterfeiting by ensuring the supply chain remains intact.

Burberry, which until 2007 produced its high-end fashion at a plant at Treorchy, said it only destroyed items that carried its trademark and only worked with specialist companies able to harness the energy from the process.

It said the destroying of cosmetic items was a one-off related to the licence Burberry agreed with beauty company Coty last year.

A Burberry 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 as much as £250 and its famous trench coats costing around £1,500.

The group has said it takes its environmental obligations seriously, and recently joined the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Make Fashion Circular initiative to prevent waste in the industry.