Topshop

OVERALL
Owned	UK
Rating

Clothing retailer

Founded 1964. Women's and men's clothing online and through 500 stores in more than 30 countries. Topshop parent company Arcadia went into administration in Nov 2020, and in Feb 2021 Asos bought the Topshop, Topman, Miss Selfridge and HIIT brands, but not the shops.

Company Ownership


Top Shop/Top Man Ltd	UK	website	facebook	twitter
ASOS Plc owns 100% of Top Shop/Top Man Ltd	UK	website	facebook	twitter
Fashion e-tailer Founded in 2000. One of the UK's largest online-only fashion and beauty stores. They sell their own label product lines alongside brands from other companies.

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Company Assessment

PRAISE

CRITICISM

INFORMATION

Top Shop/Top Man Ltd

Underpaid contract cleaners in UK

Topshop uses contracted cleaners, who say their wages don't cover rent and food, and are calling for fairer pay. In 2016 the fashion chain removed document supporting living wage from its website after an inquiry by The Guardian.
Source: The Guardian (2016)

Angora ban

This company has taken angora items off the shelves and promised not to use angora again, following a PETA campaign launched in Dec 2013 which revealed the cruelty inflicted on angora rabbits in Chinese factory farms, where 90% of the world's angora is produced.
Source: PETA (2018)

PETA-Approved Vegan

This company uses the "PETA-Approved Vegan" logo on some of its clothing, accessories, furniture, or home decor items made of vegan alternatives to animal-derived materials such as leather, fur, silk, feathers, or bone.
Source: PETA (2020)

ACT participant

This company is a participant in the Action, Collaboration, Transformation (ACT) initiative, an initiative between international brands and retailers, manufacturers, and trade unions to address the issue of living wages in the textile and garment supply chain.
Source: HiiL (2018)

ASOS Plc

Ethical Trading Initiative member

The Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) is an alliance of companies, trade unions and NGOs. They work in partnership to improve the lives of workers across the globe who make or grow consumer goods - everything from tea to T-shirts, from flowers to footballs. This company is a full member.
Source: Ethical Trading Initiative (2018)

55/100 in Fashion Transparency Index

The 2020 Fashion Transparency Index reviewed 250 of the world's largest fashion brands and retailers and ranked them according to how much they disclose about their social and environmental policies, practices and impacts. Brands owned by this company scored 55%, signifying that it is publishing detailed supplier lists and the vast majority of policies, procedures and future goals. The average score was 23% and the highest score was 73%.
Source: Fashion Revolution (2020)

B grade in 2019 Ethical Fashion Report

B grade in the Baptist World Aid Australia's 'Ethical Fashion Report 2019', which grades companies, from A to F, on the strength of their systems to mitigate against the risks of forced labour, child labour and worker exploitation in their supply chains, as well as protect the environment from the harmful impacts of the fashion industry. Assessment criteria fall into five main categories: policies, transparency and traceability, auditing and supplier relationships, worker empowerment and environmental management.
Source: Baptist World Aid Australia (2019)

COVID Fashion Commitments

In 2020 Baptist World Aid Australia released The COVID Fashion Report, a special edition of their Ethical Fashion Report. The report is framed around six COVID Fashion Commitments that ask companies to demonstrate the steps and measures they are taking to protect and support the most vulnerable workers in their supply chains. This company showed evidence of actions that cover ALL areas of the COVID Fashion Commitments.
Source: Baptist World Aid Australia (2020)

Transparency Pledge

The Apparel and Footwear Supply Chain Transparency Pledge (Transparency Pledge) helps demonstrate apparel and footwear companies' commitment towards greater transparency in their manufacturing supply chain. Transparency of a company's manufacturing supply chain better enables a company to collaborate with civil society in identifying, assessing, and avoiding actual or potential adverse human rights impacts. This is a critical step that strengthens a company's human rights due diligence. This company is fully aligned with the Transparency Pledge, thereby committing to regularly publish on its website a list naming all sites that manufacture its products.
Source: Transparency Pledge (2019)

Efforts to pay a living wage

The Clean Clothes Campaign report, Tailored Wages 2019 analyses responses from 32 top clothing brands about their progress in implementing a living wage for the workers who produce their clothes. This company received the lowest possible grade in the report, meaning they produced no evidence that any worker making their clothes was paid a living wage anywhere in the world.
Source: Clean Clothes Campaign (2019)

Workers rights in England

VICE News reported in 2015 that numerous former workers and unions compared the ASOS warehouse in Grimethorpe, UK to a modern-day sweatshop. Worker complaints include poor working conditions, low wages, a bullying targets regime, and a "flex" system, in which shifts are worked according to demand.
Source: VICE News (2015)

Sustainable products

The Green Room is an online destination within the asos.com website which promotes and sells products that are made by manufacturers who use sustainable business practices. However this only represents a small portion of ASOS's total sales.
Source: Company website (2013)

Zero discharge of hazardous chemicals

In 2011, a group of major apparel and footwear brands and retailers, including this company, made a shared commitment to help lead the industry towards zero discharge of hazardous chemicals by 2020. It includes specific commitments and timelines to realize this shared goal.
Source: ZDHC (2019)

Fur free retailer

This retailer has committed to being a fur free retailer, as recognised by the International Fur Free Retailer Program.
Source: Fur Free Retailer (2019)

Angora ban

Better Cotton Initiative member

This company is a member of the Better Cotton Initiative, a voluntary initiative which encourages the adoption of better management practices in cotton cultivation to achieve measurable reductions in key environmental impacts, while improving social and economic benefits for cotton farmers, small and large, worldwide.
Source: Better Cotton Initiative (2019)

Better Work Partner

This company is a partner of Better Work, an initiative of the UN's International Labour Organization and the International Finance Corporation which brings diverse groups together - governments, global brands, factory owners, and unions and workers - to improve working conditions in the garment industry and make the sector more competitive.
Source: Better Work (2020)

Make Fashion Circular participant

This company is a participant of Make Fashion Circular, a multi-stakeholder platform run by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, which drives collaboration between industry leaders and other key stakeholders to create a textiles economy fit for the 21st century. Its ambition is to ensure clothes are made from safe and renewable materials, new business models increase their use, and old clothes are turned into new. This new textiles economy would benefit business, society, and the environment.
Source: Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2019)

ACT participant

Leather Working Group member

This company is a member of the Leather Working Group, a multi-stakeholder group who's objective is to develop and maintain a protocol that assesses the compliance and environmental performance of tanners and promotes sustainable and appropriate environmental business practices within the leather industry.
Source: Leather Working Group (2019)

Sustainable Apparel Coalition member

This company is a member of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, a multi-stakeholder initiative launched in March 2011 by a group of global apparel and footwear companies and non-profit organizations (representing nearly one third of the global market share for apparel and footwear). The Coalition's goals are to reduce the apparel industry's environmental and social impact, and to develop a universal index to measure environmental and social performance of apparel products.
Source: Sustainable Apparel Coalition (2020)

Textile Exchange member

This company is a member of the Textile Exchange, a global non-profit that works closely with its members to drive textile industry transformation in preferred fibres, integrity and standards and responsible supply networks. They identify and share best practices regarding farming, materials, processing, traceability and product end-of-life in order to reduce the textile industry's impact on the world's water, soil and air, and the human population.
Source: Textile Exchange (2019)

SCAP signatory

This company is a signatory to WRAP's Sustainable Clothing Action Plan (SCAP). Signatories commit to a set of principles that work towards reaching the SCAP 2020 Targets to improve the sustainability of clothing across its life cycle by working collaboratively with industry, government and the third sector.
Source: WRAP (2017)

CanopyStyle member

This company is a member of the CanopyStyle initiative, which came about when research found that millions of trees are used every year to produce dissolving pulp, a key ingredient for fabrics such as rayon/viscose. The campaign seeks to phase out the use of endangered forest fibre in fabric.
Source: Canopy (2018)

Materials sourcing

The Material Change Index (MCI) is a voluntary benchmark that tracks the apparel and textiles sector's progress toward more sustainable materials sourcing (cotton, polyester, nylon, manmade cellulosics, wool, down and leather), as well as alignment with global efforts like the Sustainable Development Goals and the transition to a circular economy. This company was rated "Maturing", the second highest performance band.
Source: Textile Exchange (2019)

Modern Slavery statement

California, the UK and Australia have all enacted legislation requiring companies operating within their borders to disclose their efforts to eradicate modern slavery from their operations and supply chains. Follow the link to see this company's disclosure statement.
Source: Modern Slavery Registry (2019)

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Company Details

Type	Wholly-owned subsidiary
Revenue	991 million GBP (2016)
Subsidiaries	Parkwood Topshop Athletic Ltd (50% owned) Women's activewear Co-founded by Beyonce Knowles (American recording artist) and Philip Green (owner of fashion retailer Toyshop) as a joint venture company in 2014. Commenced sales April 2016.

Contact Details

Address	London, United Kingdom
Website	www.topshop.com

Products / Brands

Topshop

HIIT Sportswear
Miss Selfridge Womens Fashion
Topman Menswear (casual)
Topshop Womens Fashion

Ivy Park (50% owned)

Ivy Park Activewear

Topshop

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