Asda's George to add pre-owned to stores

By

Nigel TAYLOR

Published
Apr 29, 2021

Asda has joined the vintage resale trend. The UK value supermarket’s George brand is to start selling second-hand clothes in conjunction with specialist Preloved Vintage Wholesale (PVW).

The move follows a successful trial period at a store in Leeds, and it now plans to expand the concept into 50 of its 632 stores across the UK.

Asda said the new scheme would "give a new lease of life" to pre-worn garments, enabling customers to "buy vintage, retro and second-hand branded pieces, preventing thousands of tonnes of garments going to landfill each year”.

Mel Wilson, head of sustainable sourcing at Asda’s George clothing and homewares brand, told The Guardian newspaper: “We know that sustainable fashion is something that’s really important to our customers and colleagues. They’re passionate about us encouraging everyone in the UK to think about the issues of waste and how we can make fashion and textiles more circular, so that we really can reduce the number of garments that go into landfill”.

Retailing under the PVW brand name, the second-hand clothes will be initially available in stores in London, Bristol, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Brighton, among others.

Preloved Vintage managing director Steve Lynam also told the BBC the company had prevented more than 800 tonnes of clothing ending up in landfill and that linking with Asda would increase that “dramatically".

"In a world where we are becoming more environmentally conscious this partnership will help bring sustainable fashion to the mainstream which is something as a business we strive for in everything we do. The more people that buy into the circular economy and shop vintage & retro the bigger impact we will have on climate change”.

The importance of sustainable fashion has been growing strongly in recent years and has been embraced by a number of retailers, including Primark, M&S, and, most recently, Asda and JD Sports for trainers. In 2019, Selfridges teamed up with the resale site Vestiaire Collective to sell on second-hand garments.