What Clothes Aid does

Clothes Aid, operating through its legal entity Clothes Aid Enterprises (registered in England, company number 07106152), is a private for-profit social business founded in 1996 by Laurie Hollande. The company collects unwanted clothing and household textiles from UK households via a door-to-door collection service, sorts and bales the donated goods, and resells them to wholesale buyers in 14 European and Central Asian markets including department stores in Lithuania, Latvia, the Czech Republic, Romania, Poland, Italy, and Ukraine. Under contractual arrangements with its charity partners, 84–95% of profits are passed through to UK charities, with the modest residual reinvested into operations; the company has raised over £14 million for UK charities since inception and over £1 million in the most recent reporting year.

The operating model rests on a national logistics network of 150 self-employed van owner-driver teams supported by a Blackburn-based head office (with a London presence), serving more than 45,000 households weekly through door-delivered collection bags, a self-serve website booking form, and an Android mobile app launched in 2024 (iOS in development). The company holds House to House Collections Licences from over 500 UK local authorities and is registered with the Fundraising Regulator and the Institute of Fundraising. Underlying technology is modest: Salesforce for CRM and customer service case management, RouteXL for collection route optimisation, and standard web analytics and advertising pixels. Dedicated sub-services extend the model into schools (with Green Flag Award-linked collections paying up to £500 per tonne) and a one-stop bulk collection service for businesses, community groups, and personal donors with 30 or more bags.

Commercially, Clothes Aid operates a transaction-based resale model with no charge to donors. Revenue is generated entirely from wholesale resale of collected textiles to overseas buyers, with charity distributions structured as pass-through profit shares rather than fees. The customer base is bifurcated: a mass-market household donor base on the supply side, and a curated portfolio of named charity partners (NSPCC, PDSA, Cancer Support UK, CHAS, Zoë's Place, Bradley Lowery Foundation, GNAAS, and others) on the beneficiary side. The addressable UK textile waste market is estimated at 300,000 tonnes per year, of which the company processes on the order of 2,600 tonnes per week at warehouse capacity.

Name

Clothes Aid

Legal name

Clothes Aid Enterprises

Website

https://clothesaid.co.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

1996

Operating status

Operating

Short description

Clothes Aid is a UK social business that collects unwanted clothing from households via door-to-door pickups, resells the textiles to European wholesale buyers, and passes 84–95% of profits to partner charities including NSPCC, PDSA, and CHAS.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Textile Recycling and Charity Fundraising Services

SIC

Wholesale-Apparel, Piece Goods & Notions (5130)

akta.pro primary industry

Industrial Laundry & Textile Waste Services (Non-hazardous) (EUAIAGAI)

Keywords

• Charity clothes collection
• Textile recycling services
• Donated clothing resale
• Fundraising for charities
• Second-hand clothing export

Headquarters

HQ city

Blackburn

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Operations, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Clothing Resale and Export: Collected clothing and household items are sold to European department stores. Items are exported to countries including Lithuania, Latvia, Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, Estonia, Georgia, Italy, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Bulgaria. A contractually predetermined percentage (84-95%) of profits is passed to partner charities. The remaining modest amount is reinvested into operations.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Clothes Aid operates a free door-to-door clothes collection service across the UK. Collection bags are delivered through household doors and picked up on scheduled dates by a network of 150+ self-employed van owner drivers. Collected clothing and household items are exported and resold to European department stores, with 84-95% of profits contractually passed to UK partner charities.

Product overview

Clothes Aid is a social business offering a unified clothes collection service for UK charities. The core offering is the Free Clothes Collection Service, a door-to-door collection model where collection bags are distributed to households and picked up on a scheduled basis. The One-Stop Collections service extends this for bulk donations from schools, businesses, and community groups. The Clothes Aid App (Android mobile application) provides a digital booking channel for the collection service. Partner Charity Collections provide dedicated collection pathways for specific named charity partners.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Free Clothes Collection Service
• One-Stop Bulk Collections

Quantifiable outcome

• Over £14 million raised for UK charities since 1996
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

20 partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Bradley Lowery FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCharity partner for clothing collections. Registered charity no. 1174333 (England and Wales). Clothes Aid aims to donate at least £20,000 plus VAT annually. For every tonne of clothes collected, between £75-£125 plus VAT is donated.
• Cancer Support UKcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCharity partner providing practical and emotional support to people with cancer. Registered Charity No. 1105703 (England & Wales), SC039731 (Scotland). Target of at least £100,000 plus VAT per year.
• Children's Hospices Across Scotland (CHAS)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerScottish charity providing palliative care for children. Scottish charity number SC 019724. Clothes Aid has raised over £500,000 to date for CHAS, with guaranteed minimum of £20,000 plus VAT annually.
• People's Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerUK's leading veterinary charity operating 48 Pet Hospitals. Registered charity no. 208217 (England & Wales), SC037585 (Scotland). Target of at least £100,000 plus VAT per year.
• Zoë's Place Baby HospicecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerBaby hospice providing palliative, respite and terminal care for infants aged birth to five years. Registered charity no. 1092545 (England and Wales). Partnership guarantees £25,000 per year income.
• Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAir ambulance charity partnership for collections across North East England and Cumbria. Dedicated booking page for GNAAS supporters.
• WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSignatory to SCAP 2020 Commitment. Works with governments, businesses and communities to deliver practical solutions to improve resource efficiency. Quotes WRAP statistics on textile waste in UK.
• Institute of Fundraising (IoF)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerProfessional membership body for UK fundraising. Clothes Aid is a levy-paying member and follows the Code of Fundraising Practice. Invited to sit on IoF Code of Fundraising Practice working group.
• Fundraising RegulatorcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerIndependent regulator of charitable fundraising. Clothes Aid is registered and pays necessary levies, following all fundraising regulations.
• Textile Recycling AssociationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerUK's trade association for collectors, sorters, processors and exporters of used clothing and textiles. Collaborated on research quantifying theft in London.
• Love Your ClothesminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCampaign to reduce the impact of clothing on the environment. Joint decluttering leaflets produced with Clothes Aid.
• Age UK HertfordshireminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerRegional charity partner. Target of at least £50,000 plus VAT per year.
• NSPCCcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNational charity partner. Target of at least £500,000 plus VAT per year. Holds National Exemption Order.
• Children's Air AmbulanceminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPart of The Air Ambulance Service. Holds National Exemption Order. Target of at least £20,000 plus VAT per year.
• The Children's Hospital CharityminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerHospital charity partner. Target of at least £37,500 plus VAT per year.
• Scottish SPCAminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerScottish animal welfare charity partner. Target of at least £25,000 plus VAT per year.
• Cash for KidsminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerChildren's charity partner listed in booking form options.
• London Community Recycling NetworkminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerIndustry body partner for community-based waste prevention and recycling solutions across London.
• London Textile ForumminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerIndustry body partner for textile recycling sector.
• Sustainable Clothing Action Plan (SCAP) Steering GroupcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerClothes Aid is a signatory to the SCAP 2020 Commitment and sits on the steering group to reduce environmental footprints.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Cancer Research UK (charity shops): Operates a national chain of charity shops reselling donated clothing and goods, competing for the same donor pool as Clothes Aid with a high-street retail rather than collection-based model.
• British Heart Foundation (charity retail): Operates a large chain of UK charity shops reselling donated clothing, competing with Clothes Aid for donor mind-share and clothing inventory, though not via door-to-door collection.
• Age UK (charity retail): National charity with affiliated charity shops reselling donated clothing; overlaps with Clothes Aid on UK donor market and is itself a Clothes Aid charity partner at regional level.
• Mary's Living and Giving (Save the Children): Save the Children's boutique charity-shop concept reselling donated and curated clothing; comparable donor economics and target demographic to Clothes Aid, though centralised in physical retail.
• Oxfam GB (charity retail): Major UK charity retail network reselling donated second-hand clothing; overlaps with Clothes Aid on donor pool but operates via shop drop-off rather than doorstep pickup.
• Barnardo's (charity retail): Operates a large UK network of charity shops reselling donated clothing and household goods; competes for donor volume and charity-partnership mind-share with Clothes Aid.

Direct peers

• The Salvation Army Trading Company: Operates UK-wide clothing collection and reuse (via charity shops and rag trade), directly competing with Clothes Aid for donated textile volume and downstream resale economics.
• Traid: UK charity that collects, sorts and resells donated clothing to fund charity programmes — the closest direct analogue to Clothes Aid's door-to-door collection / export / charity-fundraising model.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/ClothesAid
• YouTubevimeo.com/clothesaid
• Facebookfacebook.com/clothesaid
• Instagraminstagram.com/clothesaidservices
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/clothes-aid

Compliance5 records

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 Clothes Aid