CWB’s Laura Turner speaks to Neil Ward, MD of B Corp schoolwear supplier One+All, to learn more about the company’s new brand and the role it will play in its long-term strategy.
One+All is well known in schoolwear for being responsible, for being a B Corporation, and for producing well-made, good quality garments. In the coming years, the company wants to be known for more. It plans to achieve this with the introduction of complementary products under a newly launched brand called The Making Of.
A platform for new items, The Making Of offers sustainable clothing and accessories designed to supplement existing customers’ offers without being schoolwear-specific. Providing the same quality as One+All as well as being suitable for embroidery and printing, The Making Of range will be available for both adults and children, catering to sectors such as workwear, clubwear and societies.
Commenting is company MD, Neil Ward. “We will have a dual department and dual branded business: One+All for schoolwear and The Making Of for additional garments and accessories. Something we want to make very clear to our existing customers is that our One+All range remains 100% protected for authorised stockists of school uniform.
“The One+All brand is synonymous with schoolwear and rightly so; we wouldn’t want it to be accessible to unauthorised stockists. It’s the right thing to do to make sure One+All is always protected, which is why we would introduce non-schoolwear-specific products under a new brand for the wider industry.”
The first garments branded with The Making Of are coats and fleeces, which One+All trialled this Back to School to a positive reception
With coats not being exclusive to school uniform, they’re an ideal starting point for the new brand. “In schoolwear, coats are used almost as a complementary product to the core range,” continues Ward. “Beyond schoolwear, the demand gets so much wider – for instance, for workwear, clubs, societies and outdoor pursuits.
“Although we introduced coats under One+All, because it’s a product more widely demanded and will continue to be in the future, we’re rebranding them to The Making Of. All our other existing well-established products will remain One+All, as they are core schoolwear items.
“As we launch new products in the future, if they’re schoolwear-specific and exclusive to authorised stockists of school uniform, they’ll be under the One+All brand. If it’s a product we think could be more widely available and complementary to our schoolwear customers but not exclusive to them, it will be under The Making Of brand.”
Who is the brand targeted at?
With a number of current One+All customers providing dual garment offerings, for example schoolwear and workwear, introducing The Making Of allows the company to fulfil both requirements, providing existing customers with more options for products they already stock. For schoolwear-only customers, The Making Of brand presents a whole new market to potentially pursue.
“The Making Of is a small but important new step that utilises our existing expertise and manufacturing capabilities to provide existing customers with the option to do more with more products,” adds Ward. “Strategically, we will take it steadily, with the aspiration that in 10 years’ time we will have a strong foothold in what is a huge market.
“We’ll start with the coats, learn, improve, and assess the demand more widely. We’ll then add in sensible amounts of products in the future − hopefully, ones that our existing customers will find interesting or that they already buy elsewhere − coupled with the service, delivery and price our customers know us for. The Making Of will be a quality brand, priced competitively and made as ethically and sustainably as possible.”
Good branding always tells a story
In The Making Of’s case, an arrow represents progression while a circle symbolises the Planet. The colour palette also takes four of the six colours from One+All to link the two brands under the same family. The overall effect is fresh and refined, reflecting a more diverse audience and market. The branding’s circle also lends itself to the B Corp logo, which is the underpinning of the company.
Unlike limited companies that focus on maximising shareholder value and making as much profit as possible, B Corporations are obliged to balance the elements of looking after people, doing good for the planet, and generating prosperity for all − including the business, so that it is strong for the future.
“All our initiatives are for the planet or people,” comments Ward. “When it comes to the planet, we look to reduce our carbon footprint and use better raw materials – for us the yarns and chemicals are key − prolong the life of products, re-use the products if possible and make sure they then enter the circular economy or have another use at end of life.
“To help address this, we have recycling units that we provide to our customers. The first five are free and then after that, we just charge to cover costs. The scheme has really taken off and is getting bigger all the time. Then we have our initiatives for people; people in our supply chain, people in the business − and being employee-owned means we can really look after the people in the business – our customers and the community.”
Some of the company’s recent developments in these areas include accreditation by Better Cotton™
The plan is to move all cotton garments to accredited cotton. Better Cotton is a global cotton sustainability programme that aims to help cotton communities to survive and thrive while protecting and restoring the environment in which the cotton is grown, which is a great fit for the company.
Another key investment area is product packaging, which has switched from plastic to sugarcane. The beauty of sugarcane is that not only does it grow fast and replenish quickly, but it also captures carbon. Essentially, the process of its growth takes carbon out of the atmosphere as opposed to plastic’s production, which puts it in.
Currently, all of the company’s UK plastic packaging has moved to sugarcane, together with the majority of the Bangladesh production. As sugarcane can’t be secured in some of the company’s other manufacturing countries − Egypt, the Philippines and China − an alternative solution will be sourced for those.
Ongoing initiatives include reviewing workers’ salaries in Egypt. This is done every year to ensure all pay is in line with the company’s Living Wage rather than the much lower local wage. Elsewhere, the company’s continued support of its Bangladesh supplier recently saw the introduction of a library to the business. While literacy is very high in Bangladesh, access to books is limited. The new library, to which One+All donated a large number of books primarily focused on children’s learning, provides everyone at the factory with free access to books for themselves and their families.
The future
From a business perspective, Ward sees the next 12 months as a period to concentrate on existing but fast-growing new products, including One+All’s tie offer, which has met with unprecedented demand since it was introduced last year.
“We want to make sure our customers are happy with everything we’re doing,” concludes Ward. “We need to make sure they understand the new brand and get their feedback. The critical part is that by talking to them about the new brand now, we can use that opportunity to develop and introduce what they need, whether that be across schoolwear, workwear or something else.
“The Making Of creates a whole new conversation for us. Previously the question to customers has always been: If we could do something new in schoolwear, what would it be? Now the question is: If we could do anything in schoolwear or another market you’re involved with, what would it be? If what comes back from customers is that there’s something else in schoolwear we should do, then that is what we will do, but The Making Of now gives us the option to provide so much more.”
For further information on One+All, please click here.
