Business Leaders

The North Circular is a British high fashion knitwear brand, offering a range of hand knitted accessories and a ready to wear collection. The whole collection is sourced and produced locally, with no item, not even the clothing tag, coming from outside the UK,

The North Circular sources its Wensleydale wool from a sheep sanctuary in North Yorkshire and also uses recycled rescued wool, that is collected from sources that would otherwise destroy it, The North Circular accessories range is entirely produced by passionate hand knitters in Britain who are working from home, giving each item a unique look.

The North Circular aims to support and revive local traditional skills by setting up local susutainable knitting circles similar to their model in other parts of the world.

ETHICAL POLICY

1. Ethical Focus, Certification and Standards

The North Circular Is committed to:

• Using sustainable fibres & yarn: organic wool, rescued wool, recycled wool; organic cotton; other sustainable fibres
• Keeping manufacturing local to yarn source
• Creating good working conditions and sustainable livelihood for workers
• Supporting and reviving traditional knitting skills
• Supporting British industry

2. Business structure and practices

• Sourced and manufactured in UK (sourcing, spinning, dyeing, knitting) – model for production circles close to yarn source; take the business model (hand knitted items) to other places in the future ‡ Peru, Mongolia
• All accessories are hand knitted by home workers, wages are set in agreement with knitters
• Plan to focus on RTW collection ‡ machine knitted, manufactured in Scotland

3. Sourcing and Supply Chain policies

The North Circular is committed to:

• Sourcing wool from sustainable sources (currently Izzy Lane’s rescued sheep & a Manchester based supplier that sells recycled and end of line wool)
• Sourcing other yarns (cotton and alpaca for next collections) from sustainable fibres (eg organic cotton, UK alpaca, fairly traded alpaca); researching sustainability of fibres & yarns before using new fibres
• Creating “production circles” in country of origin of yarn
• Using organic / Fairtrade certified fibres wherever possible
• Working towards certified organic textile

4. Factories

The North Circular is committed to:

• Building long term relationships with manufacturing units
• Producing in UK as long as using UK wool
• Working with supplier factories and mills re organic textile certification
• Designing RTW product to the strengths of the factories with which it already has a relationship

5. Fair Trade & Community Producer Organisations & Co-operatives

The North Circular is committed to:

• Investigating whether Fairtrade certified cotton may be possible for its products
• Working with fair trade producers, community producers and co-operatives when “production circle” model is taken to developing countries

6. Culture and Skills

The North Circular is passionate about and committed to:

• Keeping knitting traditions and skills alive and developing them for new generations
• Supporting British wool mills (or local mills in other countries with “production circles”
• Involving the elderly
• Involving the knitters with their knowledge, experience and skills, in the design process; being able to trace items back to the individual knitters

7. Key Targets

1 Year

• Establish business commercially
• Develop RTW line
• Work on reducing cost price without compromising ethics
• Develop ethical trading policy for supplier factories and use when sourcing new suppliers
• Ensure legal and best practice requirements are being followed with regard to homebased knitters
• Research relevant certification (eg organic fibre / organic textile) and discuss with suppliers
• Link with relevant charities supporting the elderly
• Set 5 Year targets

5 Years

• Expand “production circle” model to other countries
• Be “best practice” model for working with homebased workers
• Have certified fibres and garments where possible
• Be recognised for keeping and developing traditional knitting skills