ASOS
OVERALL |
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Owned |
UK |
Rating |
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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.
Company Ownership
ASOS Plc | UK | website | ||||
Bestseller A/S ![]() owns 30% of ASOS Plc |
DNK | website | ||||
Clothing Privately held family-owned clothing and accessories company founded in Denmark in 1975. Sales in 70 countries, with manufacturing in more than 800 factories across 23 countries. |
Company Assessment
PRAISE | CRITICISM | INFORMATION | ||
ASOS Plc | ||||
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 (2021)
The 2022 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 human rights and environmental policies, practices and impacts. Brands owned by this company scored 51%, signifying that it is publishing detailed supplier lists and the vast majority of policies, procedures and future goals. The average score was 24% and the highest score was 78%.
Source: Fashion Revolution (2022)
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)
The Chinese government has facilitated the mass transfer of Uyghur and other ethnic minority citizens from the far west region of Xinjiang to factories across the country. Under conditions that strongly suggest forced labour, Uyghurs are working in factories that are in the supply chains of international brands. This company is one of handful that has endorsed the Call to Action on Human Rights Abuses in the Uyghur Region.
Source: End Uyghur Forced Labour (2021)
This company is a signatory to the International Accord for Health and Safety in the Textile & Garment Industry. The International Accord was established in 2021 as the successor to the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, which was established in 2013 in the wake of the Rana Plaza building collapse that killed more than 1,000 workers and seriously injured thousands more. Company signatories to the International Accord commit to: Disclosing all factories producing for them in countries with International Accord programs; Ensuring all listed factories participate in the inspection, remediation, and safety training programs; Supporting factories to ensure remediation is financially feasible; Contributing to the operational costs of International Accord programs. This company has also signed the Pakistan Accord.
Source: International Accord (2023)
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) |
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)
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) |
This company has been criticised for misleading advertising. In 2021 the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld a complaint about an email from ASOS, dated 31 July 2020, which stated "20% off everything + free delivery" in the subject line, even though around 1,100 products were excluded from the promotion. The ASA concluded the email was misleading. The ad was subsequently discontinued or modified.
Source: Advertising Standards Authority (2021)
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)
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)
As listed on the We Mean Business website, this company has committed to the following climate action initiatives: adopt a science-based emissions reduction target.
Source: We Mean Business (2021)
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)
This retailer has committed to being a fur free retailer, as recognised by the International Fur Free Retailer Program.
Source: Fur Free Retailer (2019)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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 (2020)
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)
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: IndustriALL (2021)
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 (2022)
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 (2022)
This company is a signatory to the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment, whose goal is to eliminate plastic pollution at its source.
Source: New Plastics Economy (2022)
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: company website (2019)
Baptist World Aid Australia's '2022 Ethical Fashion Report' assessed 120 companies on their efforts 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: policy & governance, tracing & risk, auditing and supplier relationships, worker empowerment and environmental sustainability. This company received a score of 41/100.
Source: Baptist World Aid Australia (2022)
Business & Human Rights Resource Centre digital platform presents news and allegations relating to the human rights impact of over 20,000 companies. Their enhanced Company Dashboards also include financial information, key data points based on corporate policies, and scores from prominent civil society benchmarks. Follow the link and use the search function to view this company's dashboard.
Source: BHRRC (2022) |
Company Details
Type | Public company |
Founded | 2000 |
Revenue | 3.2 billion GBP (2020) |
Employees | 4,000 (2019) |
Subsidiaries | Top Shop/Top Man Ltd ![]() 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. American retailer Nordstrom bought a minority stake from Asos in July 2021. - 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.asosplc.com |
Products / Brands
ASOS
ASOS Womens Fashion ASOS Menswear (casual) ASOS E-commerce ASOS Curve Womens Plus Size |
Topshop
HIIT Sportswear Miss Selfridge Womens Fashion Topman Menswear (casual) Topshop Womens Fashion |
Ivy Park (50% owned)
Ivy Park Activewear
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