During the year our brands and head office activities have raised a total of £1.7 million. A breakdown of each brand’s activities can be found below.
Our employees also donate via our Workplace Giving Scheme; total donations this year were £179,000 with 2,300 employees taking part in the scheme.
Our sample sales at head office are a regular fixture and continue to raise significant funds for charity. This year the combined efforts of our London and Leeds sample sales raised a total of £97,500.
Another element of this activity is the garments we donate to charities. This year we donated 43,000 garments to charities such as Traid, Barnardo’s, BDF Newlife and the Salvation Army.
Fashion Footprint Charity – Tender Heart, India
Tender Heart is a community of teachers and volunteers who provide care for children with special needs and offer vocational training and skills to local women and children. Arcadia Group has been working closely with the school since 2009 on a three-year fundraising plan to provide for its needs and to draw up a long-term plan for the school’s ongoing success.
To support our last year with Tender Heart, we held a three day long Fashion Footprint Festival event across our head offices in June to raise awareness of all the great work we have done for the charity in recent years. The event was a final push towards our three-year goal of £50,000.
This year we raised £16,000 at our Fashion Footprint Festivals, which, added to the £34,000 raised over the previous two years, enabled us to hit our three-year target. The money was raised via samples sales in all our head offices, along with a giant raffle sale, where some of our key suppliers generously donated prizes.
To date, Tender Heart has employed a full-time maths teacher, a speech therapist and a physiotherapist. Infrastructure has been improved with the installation of an industrial water cooler and refurbished water tank while other equipment purchased includes curtains, new flooring and toys.
Individual Charity Sponsorship
As a group, we are committed to matching funds raised by our employees up to the value of £500. Over the last year, our match-funding total was £7,500 for charities such as Centrepoint and Marie Curie.
BHS
BHS supports NSPCC and Breast Cancer Care as well as collecting in stores for the Royal British Legion’s Poppy Appeal. The brand’s fundraising total for the year came to just over £373,000.
BHS has had a four-year relationship with NSPCC, raising more than £280,000 for the child protection charity this year alone. The partnership passed a major milestone this year with donations from BHS passing the £1 million mark following a bumper Easter weekend of fundraising.
Support for Breast Cancer Care, which BHS has partnered with for eight years, is not far behind with a total raised to date of £999,000 and more than £49,000 raised this year alone. Charity ambassador Lisa Snowdon met members of the BHS team this year to thank the brand for its ongoing support. It was an anniversary year for BHS’ support of the Remembrance Poppy appeal this year, celebrating its half century of fundraising with nearly £6,800 raised in 2011.
BURTON
This year saw Burton forge a new charity partnership with Trekstock, which supports young people with cancer. During the year the brand raised £75,000 via sales of badges and a phenomenal effort from employees who skydived, zip-wired, head-shaved, bungee-jumped, cycled and trekked their way to the fundraising total. Twenty-two employees across head office and the retail team ran the Reading half marathon in April while one manager has a lasting memory of his efforts – a tattoo of the Trekstock logo. The brand’s fundraising activity in store was branded Trekshop and included the sale of nearly 2,000 t-shirts designed by comedian James Corden, featuring a muscular torso emblazoned on the front.
DOROTHY PERKINS
Dorothy Perkins has two long-term charity partners: Breast Cancer Care and Woodland Trust. The brand raised more than £212,000 for Breast Cancer Care this year via employee endeavours and the sales of pins, wristbands and the recently-launched mini nail files. The brand is always very active during Breast Cancer Awareness Month each October and 2011 was no exception.
Each year the brand develops products to be sold in stores and online in support of the Woodland Trust. Sales of ‘hotties’ – hot water bottles with fragrant lavender inserts – in-store and online raised around £30,000 for the charity that aims to protect and enhance our native woods and trees.
EVANS
During the year Evans continued to support Breakthrough Breast Cancer Care with the sales of pins at till points, raising £4,000. During Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October, 10% of the sales from selected pink items, including a dressing gown, nightwear and slippers, were given to the charity, raising a total of £13,000. Evans also continues to work with ‘Dress For Success’, ensuring disadvantaged women have the perfect outfit for their interview giving them the confidence to shine.
MISS SELFRIDGE
Miss Selfridge supports the Lavender Trust, a charity offering support and information to younger women affected by Breast Cancer in the UK.
This year the brand raised £17,500. Stores have been participating in fantastic fundraising events over the past year including fashion shows, pampering parties, cake sales to friends and tea parties.
OUTFIT
Outfit selects an annual charity partner and this year it was the turn of the Alzheimer’s Society. The partnership has been hugely successful and the contract has been extended to run until Christmas 2012.
Employees have been throwing themselves into their usual mix of activities, including parachute jumps and marathons and in-store fundraising events. The stores have also been selling a folding bag with a suggested donation of £2 each. Other items on sale include a bag charm, button mirror and key ring. Dementia Awareness Week saw £12,000 raised in just one day while an Olympics-themed event in August helped Outfit raise a grand total of £220,000 for the Alzheimer’s Society.
TOPMAN
TOPMAN has established relationships in place with Teenage Cancer Trust and CALM – the campaign against living miserably that was set up to reduce the high suicide rate among young men under 35.
The brand raised more than £76,000 for Teenage Cancer Trust towards its three-year target of £500,000. This included sales of specially designed t-shirts with £5 from each one going to the charity. In addition, TOPMAN also ran a promotion online for shoppers where 5% of sales were donated to TCT, raising a further £15,000 in donations.
During the year the brand held an event in aid of CALM, raising £200 from collection buckets. The event saw a battle of the DJs at the TOPMAN store at London’s Oxford Circus.
TOPSHOP
TOPSHOP worked with Centrepoint this year via the sale of the NEWGEN t-shirts created to mark the brand’s 10th anniversary of supporting young designer talent at London Fashion Week. To date the brand has raised £83,000 from the tees while bracelets sold at till points has raised a further £43,000.
The brand has also worked with Fashion Targets Breast Cancer and Teenage Cancer Trust during the year. The total raised for these charities was £155,000. This included donations from the sale of limited edition slogan t-shirts as well as mirrors and friendship bracelets. Age UK completes the line up of TOPSHOP charity partners. Fundraising includes the sale of Christmas cards designed by up-and-coming illustrators and touring the country in mobile soup kitchens.
WALLIS
Wallis continues to support Great Ormond Street Hospital and raised £3,500 for GOSH from its annual pub quiz and raffle. One of the brand’s merchandising managers from head office ran the London Marathon in April for the Wallis/GOSH partnership and raised £2,700.
