As One+All expands its operations and refines its stock, service and sustainability credentials, managing director Neil Ward and sales and marketing director Matt Clark explain how the business is helping schoolwear retailers navigate legislation, uncertainty and changing customer needs.

 

For schoolwear retailers and suppliers, the introduction of new legislation marks a defining moment. The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, now known as the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026, places legal limits on the number of compulsory branded uniform items schools in England can require. For an industry built on long-standing relationships with schools, parents and pupils, the change has inevitably prompted conversations around the future shape of uniform.

For One+All, the response is to lean into its strengths – dependable stock, responsive service, quality product, personalisation and close partnerships with customers – all backed by added flexibility, which is central to the company’s approach this year. While forward ordering remains an important part of planning for Back to School, One+All recognises that customers may not want to commit in the same way while schools are reviewing their uniform policies. Its answer is to provide both options – a strong forward order proposition where retailers have certainty, and deep stock availability where they need more flexibility.

A recent investment backs that promise of stock.

In October 2025, One+All acquired a second building in Hadfield, a 36,000 sq. ft unit that has created valuable headroom for future growth. The move came as the business was reaching the point where space in its existing building would inevitably become a challenge, and the additional capacity will serve the company well into the future. It also allows One+All to expand services such as drop shipping, which it has been trialling and wants to grow, while ensuring it can continue the strong service levels customers rely on. For managing director Neil Ward, this is where One+All can make a real difference.

“Our solution is to provide a really compelling forward order proposition for the schools where people have confidence, but when they want to give themselves extra flexibility, we’ve got the stock and can provide it quickly when customers need it. The additional unit means we have plenty of space to keep growing and provide the same levels of strong service we’ve always offered.”

Sales and marketing director Matt Clark echoes the current importance of dependable fulfilment and flexibility of ordering while retailers adapt. “Essentially it’s about supporting customers with quick delivery and good stock availability,” he adds. “I do think confidence will return after this summer; retailers will have a clearer picture of the new buying patterns and should feel more assured about forward ordering for next year.”

Service is central to One+All, and shaped by three key values: Trust, Care and Be Better.

Trust means having the right stock at the right time, getting orders right, and delivering them to the right place when promised. Care extends from product quality to supply chain standards, community, people and customer communication. Be Better reflects the company’s ongoing investment in systems, accuracy and processes.

In terms of the latter, over the next 12 months, One+All plans to move towards scan despatch to help reduce any human error in pick orders. It is also evolving its order input system so technology can process and split orders more efficiently, whether it’s a special, forward order, day-to-day stock, or embroidery. The objective is to reduce reliance on human intervention to ensure everything goes to the right place, whilst also freeing up the team to focus on the conversations and support that customers value most.

That balance between technology and human service is increasingly important.

More than half of One+All’s orders now come through My Account, its online ordering system, or via API integrations that allow retailers’ systems to talk directly to One+All’s. For retailers, the benefit is time saved, improved accuracy and quicker processing. For One+All, it removes potential input errors and missed orders, because they feed straight into production. Yet despite most of its orders moving online, One+All has increased its customer care team by 50%, reflecting the importance it places on maintaining human communication throughout the process. “Alongside technology, people still want to talk,” confirms Ward.

 

 

Product, sustainability and future focus.

Product-wise, One+All is focused on playing to its strengths: quality garments that can be personalised well and supported from stock. This year, customer insight has driven an expansion of One+All’s stock-supported colour offer for sweats, polos and blazers. Retailers liked the company’s product ranges but, in some cases, couldn’t source every shade they needed from stock. Plugging those gaps was a practical way to help customers consolidate more of their buying with the company. Alongside the wider colour palette, One+All is also extending its stock special knitwear offer with three additional pullover designs and two cardigans.

Sustainability, of course, remains integral to the business.

One+All’s B Corp journey continues, now under a new tougher reaccreditation framework that requires businesses to meet minimum standards across seven impact topics rather than rely on an overall score. Recently, the company has been working on Scope 3 Emissions, which focuses on indirect emissions across the supply chain and beyond the point of sale.

With 92% of the carbon associated with One+All garments being generated after sale, the company is embarking on a project to help educate consumers on garment care, including the environmental benefits of lower temperature washing and line drying rather than tumble drying. It is also exploring more sustainable yarns and fibres – although it already uses recycled polyester in many products – has an association with the Better Cotton initiative, and in the last 12 months it has eliminated cotton/acrylic in one of its ranges in favour of a poly/cotton/nylon mix, which tests and performs better.

That same focus on reducing impact is also being applied to One+All’s physical footprint.

The business is bringing the new second site in line with its standards, using its head office and overseas factories as a blueprint to duplicate improvements such as LED lighting, electric charging points and solar power. “As we get bigger and have more of a presence in different factories and units, we will raise them up to our standards, bringing more people into our world,” adds Ward.

Looking ahead, One+All sees the uniform legislation as an opportunity for the sector. Schools are making decisions that could shape uniform policies for years to come, and retailers are the people best placed to guide them. “Now is the time to be closer to schools than ever,” concludes Ward. “It’s a really good opportunity to do what we’ve always done as an industry, which is help schools decide what their uniform can be, help shape that uniform, and play a part in all these young people’s lives for years to come.”

For 2027, One+All’s strategy is about maximising the strong platform it has built.

Its 10-year direction has been to develop the school uniform products customers want, supported by service they trust, and to extend where personalisation plays to its strengths. With the range now broader, the stockholding stronger and its technology more embedded, the priority is to help retailers make the most of what is already in place: product consistency, operational capacity, accurate ordering, fast fulfilment, accessible customer care and a willingness to adapt around customer needs. In short, One+All is fitting the bill by doing what it has always done best. For further information, please click here.