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Birmingham Post
Birmingham Post
Business
Jon Robinson

Shoppers go second-hand to help combat cost-of-living crisis

Sales almost doubled at a second-hand clothing retailer in the final three months of 2022 as shoppers looked for ways to cut costs amid the cost-of-living crisis.

Blackburn-based Go Thrift's revenue totalled £846,000 in the final quarter, up from £451,000 a year earlier.

It also confirmed that on Black Friday its sales were up by 160% compared to the previous year.

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The company's chief executive and founder said it is an "exciting time" for the business as the global second-hand fashion market is set to overtake fast fashion by 2030, according to a GlobalData report.

Since its launch in 2019, GoThrift has recirculated 200,000 used clothes, with Levi jeans being a big seller, the business said.

Carl Walker said: "Go Thrift is going from strength to strength. We started as a completely bootstrapped company to turning over £1.2m in the second year of trading.

"It’s a very exciting time for us. After deploying the investment received earlier this year, sales have boomed and 2022 Q4 revenue was up by 90% up year-on-year. Black Friday week alone, we were 160% up on last year.

"The global second-hand fashion market is growing three times faster than the global fashion market overall. By 2030 the market is expected to be bigger than fast fashion, making this investment round an attractive opportunity for investors who want to be ahead of the game in this sector."

Mr Walker and his co-founders Sam Hunter, Sarah Dean and Katie Walker have set a fundraising target of £1m to rapidly scale-up in response to demand and to increase the amount of inventory listed online. The funding will also lay the foundations for expansion throughout Europe.

The company is also looking to hire 15 new warehouse staff members over two years.

Mr Walker added: "We offer a more sustainable and affordable way of shopping for clothing online. Levi jeans is a key listing on our site and is consistently a best seller.

"We’ve sold over 60,000 pairs of Levi’s since launch, saving an estimated 456 million litres of water as each new pair of jeans bought requires 7,600 litres of water to make.

"We are turning the tide on fast-fashion, driving category awareness and creating a genuine impact on the planet and consumer pockets throughout the ongoing cost-of-living crisis."

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