Retailer Viewpoint: Reduce & reuse - building links with the community

Insight talks to inspirational retailer Caeryn Collins from Impressions Uniforms.

There’s more than one way to improve the sustainability of schoolwear. Selling eco-friendly and Fair Trade garments is part of the mix, but there are other actions we can take which make a difference. One retailer in the North West is blazing a trail with a reuse scheme that’s putting her business at the heart of the community. What’s more, in pursuing the values she believes in, she’s confounded the accountants and grown her turnover too.

‘Five years ago, I wasn’t happy coming to work’ say Caeryn Collins, owner of Impressions Uniforms, with three shops in the Wigan area. ‘It wasn’t that we had a bad business; it was that I didn’t feel good about all we were doing. I’d sort of drifted into selling schoolwear after leaving a career in urban renewal for family reasons. I wanted us to play a bigger role in the community, and do more than simply grow our profits.’ That’s why she started Smart Futures, a Community Interest Company that reuses quality schoolwear for the benefit of families who would otherwise struggle with the costs. ‘Every week I’d see parents having to make heart wrenching choices about what essentials to buy for their children. Imagine being the only child in the classroom not in uniform and the impact that has on your confidence. There had to be ways we could help.’

Her accountants didn’t agree. Surely her job was to sell uniform and not discourage new purchases? ‘I told them I didn’t care’ says Caeryn, ‘And in any event, the families needing help weren’t buying anything but the basics, because they couldn’t afford to.’ The response is typical of Caeryn, who believes that trading on values is just as important as the numbers adding up. ‘The two go hand in hand,’ she says, ‘especially when your business is so linked to the locality.’

Reusing quality items is an obvious way to extend the life of garments, helping the environment by reducing the need to manufacture replacements. Schoolwear is designed to last, so there’s no reason why it can’t pass on between families just as it often does within them. Smart Futures takes that idea to a new level, washing and cataloguing donated items, then making up uniform packs that provide all a family needs. ‘We also sell donated stock from manufacturers and chain retailers, using the money raised to buy other items for the uniform packs,’ explains Caeryn.

The scheme has been such a success that the next step is to take it across the whole borough. This makes sense because with schools having different uniform requirements it means fewer donations go to waste. The new schoolwear bill is also expected to encourage schools to support reuse and recycle initiatives. ‘Smart Futures is an efficient way to achieve that,’ says Caeryn, ‘it could even be a model for the whole country, helping alleviate uniform poverty on a much bigger scale.’

And supporting families isn’t the only benefit of Smart Futures to the community. It’s also an opportunity to train people who might otherwise have less chance of gaining employment and life skills in the workplace. With the help of training volunteers and local support agencies, Smart Futures is providing opportunities to adults with learning difficulties, care leavers, and young people requiring more vocational training.

It’s an approach Caeryn is extending to her shops too. ‘Seeing people grow their skills and confidence from an employment opportunity we’ve provided is immensely satisfying,’ says Caeryn. ‘Our customers and our schools appreciate what we are doing, and in the long run that pays off in their loyalty and goodwill.’

Caeryn Collins from Impressions Uniforms

It’s clear that to Caeryn, doing the right thing is never far from her mind. Recently, she moved all her schools onto eco ties, absorbing the extra cost as part of a commitment to more sustainable fabrics. ‘My accountants didn’t like that idea either’ she laughs, ’but we have to start somewhere, and think more about the products we are buying and where they come from.’

Her enthusiasm is infectious, and appreciated by her partner schools too. ‘When I explain to my schools that our costs support fair wages, community involvement, training opportunities… then they can see the benefits we bring. Value is about more than just offering the lowest price.’ Caeryn believes that no business is too small to have a responsibility policy, and it doesn’t have to be too formal. ‘It’s about doing what you believe to be right—just as we do in our everyday lives,’ she says.

On which note we bring our interview to a close. Five years after feeling low about coming to work, Caeryn has found a new lease of life. It’s surely no coincidence her shops have been rebranded to Impressions – for it’s hard to think of a better first one than her infectious commitment, or for that matter, a more imaginative and forward-thinking small business owner. Recently expanding to three stores, with even more ambitious goals for her shops and her community, that’s surely a role model for a smarter future.