UK's Kapdaa - The Offcut Company generates £285K in investment

Since 2015, Kapdaa has worked with more than 300 brands including Selfridges, Raeburn, Daks, Roland Mouret, Alice and Olivia, MET Museum for the MET Gala and the National Portrait Gallery to save 10,000 metres of fabric from landfill. This mission, to turn offcuts and waste into sellable and sustainable products, increasingly resonates with a market tuned in to ethical consumption, the company said in a press release.

Nish Parekh, co-founder of Kapdaa, said: “The number of investments and collaborations we have worked with over the last year is an endorsement of the growing strength and visibility of Kapdaa, which has grown in line with the burgeoning consumer interest in high-quality sustainability products in the UK.

“Not only are we working hard to assist brands to cut their waste, we also provide sustainable products directly to customers through our website. Additionally, we have invested our time over the lockdown period to create a complete sustainable chain from the start of the garment, to reusing its offcuts, to now looking at shredding used clothing to give a new lease of life to it through The Sustainable hub.

“Governments and consumers are spurring demand for sustainable practices ahead of COP26 in November. There is a new responsibility for brands to get it right. Finding new ways to partner with producers, we are making processes cheaper and more efficient, helping newcomers into the market.”

Owing to newfound faith in the industry and commitments to new means of manufacturing, Kapdaa’s partnerships have granted a 15 per cent hike in B2B sales on last year’s figures, in turn lowering costs and making eco-friendly choices accessible to brands and consumers alike. Kapdaa especially looks forward to its upcoming partnerships with the Scottish Whisky Experience and Maison Kitsune.

In the lead-up to COP26 in November, governments have prompted markets to reflect ambitions in cutting waste and innovating cleaner ways of doing business. As reports highlight the 53 million single-use facemasks binned each day in Britain, opportunities have arisen in fashion and textiles to produce reusable items to support new demand.

Businesses look set not only on improving products but refining and growing out processes; Chanel invested $25 million in June 2021 to “take down barriers that hinder investments in climate adaptation from being scaled up.” The goal being to develop sustainable supply chains over the coming years to help grow the sector without damaging the environment.

Out of the pandemic, larger non fashion brands have expressed interest in collaborating with sustainable brands, such as Kapdaa, to create sustainable packaging and merchandise for customer giveaways, reflecting their commitment; at the end of 2020, 75 per cent of luxury brands resolved to reduce their carbon emissions and offer more sustainable services.

Millennials have long been pegged as the primary driver behind sustainability, but today 25 per cent of all consumers judge ‘the S word’ to be a mandatory consideration when making a purchase. And with quality and sustainability increasingly poised to overlap, many brands have sought partnerships to help spur on innovation.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KD)