Laura Turner speaks to Neil Ward, MD of One+All, to discuss the company’s challenges, achievements, and vision for the future. From the benefits of employee ownership and an ongoing commitment to customer satisfaction, to sharing its culture and principles with a wider audience, CWB learns more.
Laura Turner: Over the past year, what have been the biggest challenges and achievements for One+All, and how will they shape your approach moving forward?
Neil Ward: Over the past few years, we’ve expanded our product offerings to complement our core ranges. Historically, we’re known for sweatshirts, polos and knitwear, and in recent years, we’ve incorporated additional items into our range. Alongside introducing new products, we have had to make sure our services continue to get stronger, too. As both our new and established product ranges grow, it means we need more embroidery resources – both onshore and offshore – improved systems, better processes, increased stock, and additional space. The challenge really is to maintain performance with our established products, achieve growth with newer items, and consistently enhance service levels.
In terms of achievements, alongside strong growth in new product adoption, we reached our fastest embroidery turnaround this year, often completing orders in one or two days, with a standard three-day turnaround. However, we would like to do even more – have more embroidery machines, more print machines, more stock – but we’re out of space. We moved to the current site in 2017 and initially only used a third of it; now we use all of it. Due to these restrictions, we’re currently looking at properties.
LT: As a company that prioritises customer satisfaction, what are you focusing on in the coming year to uphold and enhance your standards?
NW: The basis of everything we do is maintaining high stock levels, so we invest a large proportion of our profits into making sure we can hold even more stock for the coming season. Beyond that, we will continue to try and improve our turnaround times on made-to-order products, as well as items that are personalised with embroidery and print. We’ve found the leavers’ hoodies market is growing, and we’ve experienced quite a lot of growth in that area, so we’d like to make sure the service continues to get even better to meet demand.
Elsewhere, we’ve noticed a higher percentage of online orders and also a higher percentage being placed out of hours. Our cut-off is 8pm, so if orders are placed before then, it’s still next-day delivery. It’s a service that customers are responding well to, so it’s something we want to keep improving.
LT: What would you highlight as One+All’s key strength?
NW: I think the fact that we are employee-owned. Over a sustained period of time, we have continued to evolve our culture, and I think this is rooted in employee ownership. Any single person that our customers deal with, from picking, packing or producing their order, is an owner of One+All and invested in the business. They all want the company to be the best it can be, and that shines through. When customers work with us, they’re dealing with people who genuinely want to help – they want to make sure we get it right first time, they really care, and they are invested in our customers and what they’re doing. If we make a mistake, they want to put it right quickly.
Employee ownership requires a vote on my role every four months. This ensures people are only ever supporting a leader who is actually helping the business operate in such a way that puts customers first. The company then exists for its customers, and the customers repay you with their loyalty and trust – it’s intertwined – and employee ownership is at the heart of that.
This culture also extends beyond business, and I believe it is why we do such great work in terms of how we look after people in our supply chain and care for the planet. We’re a group of people who really want to do the right thing. I think that’s different to any other business that isn’t employee-owned – our ownership model sets us apart.
LT: Are there any product updates?
NW: We’re comfortable with our product range at the moment. More recent introductions, including blazers, T-shirts, bags and workwear with The Making Of brand, are all growing quite significantly. We’d listen to customers if there was something they really wanted us to do, but for now, we’re going to stick with what we’re doing and do it well.
LT: What are your thoughts on the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill?
NW: In primary, I think it will have very little impact. In secondary, the schools will have already worked with our retail customers to make sure their uniform is right for them, so I hope that the cap won’t have much of an impact. It’s trickier on the sportswear side. I’d have liked the cap to ideally exclude sportswear and teamwear; I don’t think that’s been properly factored in. Retailers and schools may have to find innovative ways to enable children to wear a team kit while not breaking the spirit of the guidelines. So yes, we will see some changes as a result of the Bill, but we feel very privileged to be in an industry that does such great work for children – and it’s a resilient market, even in periods of change.
LT: What are One+All’s current focuses as it progresses on its B Corp journey?
NW: When we recently recertified, our B Impact Score jumped up to 136, which is great. B Corp is all about doing the right thing for people and planet. On the people side, we have those who work at One+All, which brings me back to employee ownership; that model really helps us to be a great employer. Then there’s the people in our supply chain. We work with a not-for-profit organisation, the Ethical Trading Initiative, which focuses on understanding supply chains, promoting transparency, establishing clear standards for working conditions, and ensuring these standards are consistently maintained.
On the planet side, there are so many ways we can look after the planet and be responsible, and while a lot of environmental responsibility falls on manufacturers and the territory they’re in, we believe in being fully involved: knowing what chemicals are used, how those chemicals are being disposed of, how much electricity is being used by those factories, the packaging – everything to do with the process. While not directly attributable to us, when you’re purchasing goods and services that are environmentally intensive, it is important to consider how you can minimise that impact.
Our biggest impact on the planet is the air freight of goods. It was great when we introduced stock specials, which could be shipped and kept in the warehouse for next-day delivery rather than being made-to-order. We’d like to think of more ways we can extend this and offer the same on certain tie and knitwear ranges, shipping items in advance rather than flying them in in response to a sale.
We’ve done so much work on planet initiatives within our UK operation; our thoughts now are, how can we extend this outwards and use our experience to help inspire others to do the same? We’d like to be a force for good, and for the principles we have to be shared by our retail customers and suppliers, so the focus is on how we can help to do that. One thing we’re very proud of is that we put solar panels on our Bangladesh factory last year, and we’d like to look at doing more in this area. The same applies to our community and people. We reaccredited everybody for Carbon Literacy training this year, which helps make sure everyone is up to our standards. We’re at a point now where we’re trying to think beyond our One+All business in Stockport and consider where our next investment will have the biggest impact on the planet.
LT: What is One+All’s ultimate goal?
NW: For a long time now, we’ve had the same goal: to be really proud of how we do what we do. We want to be the best we can be for our colleagues, customers, the people in our supply chain, and our community, which we’ve found then leads to commercial resilience. It also supports the company’s growth, and allows us to do more for our people, customers and supply chain.
LT: What’s your outlook for the coming year?
NW: There’s still quite a bit of uncertainty. The Bill will come into play, and I think teamwear will be tricky. How that gets resolved in each school will be interesting. However, I feel our customers are strong; they have great relationships with schools, and they will work closely with them to make sure they are really happy with the uniform they have in place. Our industry is always changing, but our customers are adaptable and brilliant businesspeople. They’ll work through any changes, and we will do anything we can to support them, so we come out the other side just as strong.
See One+All at The Schoolwear Show on 12-13 October. For further information on One+All, please click here.