Whitehouse and Schapiro

What Whitehouse and Schapiro does

Whitehouse & Schapiro, LLC is a privately held, family-owned textile trading company founded in 1907 and headquartered in Rosedale, Maryland. The firm operates as a two-sided B2B intermediary in the secondhand textile recycling industry, purchasing excess donated goods from approximately 700 unique thrift stores and charitable organizations across North America, then grading, sorting, and reselling those materials to a global network of graders, wholesalers, and recyclers. Annual throughput is approximately 250 million pounds of secondhand clothing, shoes, purses, hard and soft toys, and household items, with exports reaching nearly 50 countries spanning Japan, Eastern Europe, Chile, Pakistan, and Africa. The company matches textile grades to regional demand patterns — for example, routing vintage garments to Japan and winter wear to Eastern Europe and Chile.

The business is organized around four service lines: Thrift Excess (buying surplus from charities and thrift stores), Grader Collaboration (supplying processed textiles to downstream graders and wholesalers), Foreign Markets (export to international buyers), and Collection Drives (organizing credential clothing collections). The core operational technology is physical textile grading and sortation, with no disclosed AI, software platform, or proprietary digital tooling. Distribution is conducted via direct relationship management and hundreds of weekly international shipments, supported by a content-driven marketing presence through the company website and standard social channels. The firm holds no patents, technology certifications, or third-party integrations.

Revenue is generated through wholesale bulk sales of sorted textiles to global buyers on a quote-based B2B model; pricing is not publicly disclosed and is described as varying by grade, quantity, and destination market. The company is independently owned by the Schapiro family with William Schapiro serving as President, holds no external institutional investment, and has no parent company. Operational headcount is small (11-50 employees) relative to the 250 million pound throughput, reflecting the capital-light, high-volume commodity trading structure. The firm maintains industry leadership via long-standing board involvement in the Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles Association (SMART), with William Schapiro having served as SMART president from 2005 to 2007.

Name

Whitehouse and Schapiro

Legal name

Whitehouse & Schapiro, LLC

Website

https://webuyrags.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1907

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Whitehouse & Schapiro is a family-owned global textile trading company founded in 1907 that buys secondhand goods from 700+ North American thrift stores and charities, processes 250 million pounds annually, and exports graded textiles to buyers in nearly 50 countries.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Rosedale

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Operations, Supply Chain, Personnel, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Wholesale Textile Trading: Buys excess secondhand goods from thrift stores and charities, processes and grades materials, and sells to wholesalers, graders, and recyclers domestically and internationally. Revenue generated through bulk sales of sorted textiles to global markets.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Whitehouse & Schapiro is a global textile trading company that buys excess secondhand goods from thrift stores and charities, grades and sorts the materials, and sells the graded inventory to wholesalers, graders, and recyclers in nearly 50 countries. The company processes approximately 250 million pounds of secondhand goods annually, handling clothing, shoes, purses, hard and soft toys, and household items. Operations span sourcing from 700 unique North American suppliers through to international export distribution.

Product overview

Whitehouse & Schapiro operates as a single unified business providing secondhand textile trading services. The core offering is textile recycling and trading, supported by four interconnected service lines: Thrift Excess (purchasing surplus from thrift stores and charities), Grader Collaboration (supplying recycled products to graders and wholesalers), Foreign Markets (exporting goods globally to nearly 50 countries), and Collection Drives (organizing credential clothing collections). The company processes approximately 250 million pounds of secondhand goods annually and maintains a network of 700 unique suppliers in North America.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Thrift Excess

Quantifiable outcome

• 250 million pounds of secondhand goods processed annually
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• Serv OneminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerHumanitarian partnership for donating nearly 4,000 blankets made from recycled fibers to Ukraine war relief efforts. Collaborated on logistics and distribution of humanitarian aid.
• Vector Global LogisticsminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerLogistics partner that helped transport nearly 4,000 blankets made from recycled fibers to Ukraine. Facilitated international shipping and delivery of humanitarian supplies.
• SMART (Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles Association)coreOthersWilliam Schapiro, President of Whitehouse & Schapiro, LLC, served on the SMART board for nearly a decade and as SMART president from 2005-2007. During that leadership he was responsible for great expansion of membership and advancement of industry initiatives.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• USAgain: USAgain operates clothing and textile recycling drop-off bins nationwide, aggregating and grading secondhand apparel for resale to global markets — directly comparable in business model, supplier base (charity/consumer donations), and export channels to nearly identical end markets as Whitehouse & Schapiro.
• Trans-America Trading Company: Trans-America Trading is one of the largest US-based secondhand textile wholesalers, buying surplus clothing and resale-grade goods from charities/thrift stores and exporting globally to graders and recyclers. Closely aligned with Whitehouse & Schapiro in product mix (clothing, shoes, accessories), customer base (global graders), and revenue model (bulk per-pound wholesale).
• Planet Aid: Planet Aid collects secondhand clothing and shoes through donation bins and sells graded material to global recyclers and wholesalers, funding charitable programs. Same charity-supply-side model, same grading/sorting operation, same downstream export customers, and similar geographic footprint as Whitehouse & Schapiro.
• American Textile Recycling Service: American Textile Recycling Service (ATRS) places textile-recycling bins at retail and community locations, sorts and grades collected clothing, and resells to domestic and international recyclers/wholesalers. Directly comparable in collection-side supply model and downstream export channels.
• Community Recycling: Community Recycling is a Texas-based textile recycler that sorts and resells donated clothing/shoes/household textiles into domestic and international resale streams, serving similar downstream graders and wholesalers as Whitehouse & Schapiro.

Broad incumbents

• Goodwill Industries International: Goodwill operates the largest US thrift retail network and runs its own processing/sorting facilities (including Goodwill of the Chesapeake servicing the Mid-Atlantic) that grade and resell excess donated textiles to the same global wholesale and recycling markets Whitehouse & Schapiro serves. Larger scale and broader retail mission, but overlapping both supplier and buyer roles in the same secondhand textile value chain.
• The Salvation Army: The Salvation Army runs thousands of US thrift stores, accumulates enormous donated-textile volumes, and sells graded excess to wholesale recyclers internationally. As one of the largest potential suppliers in the same ecosystem, and a direct operator of processing functions, it is a broad incumbent competing for the same downstream value.
• Savers / Value Village (TJX): Savers operates for-profit thrift stores that contract with charities to process their donated goods, sorting and baling large volumes of secondhand clothing for both retail and wholesale/recycling export. Comparable at the sorting-and-resale step but vertically integrated with retail rather than operating as a pure wholesaler.

Emerging players

• Worn Again Technologies: Worn Again is a UK-based chemical-recycling startup aiming to turn end-of-use textiles back into raw polyester and cotton feedstocks. Not a direct secondhand wholesaler, but its technology targets the same textile-recycling value chain and represents a potential upstream disruptor to traditional grading/wholesale flows.

Others

• Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles (SMART) Association member exporters: SMART itself is the industry trade body (in which William Schapiro served as president) representing US and Canadian textile recyclers and graders; the membership collectively competes with and complements Whitehouse & Schapiro in the same per-pound wholesale trade, and SMART provides policy and standards infrastructure affecting the entire competitive set.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/webuyrags
• Facebookfacebook.com/WhitehouseSchapiro
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/whitehouse-&-schapiro-llc

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Whitehouse and Schapiro