our people

Our aim is to give back to our communities through working with collaborative charity partners who align with our values, colleagues and customers. We have developed meaningful partnerships with charities that align with the values of N Brown and in September 2022, we announced that our new corporate charity partners are the Retail Trust and FareShare Greater Manchester. 

Our brands continue to support a range of charities close to our customers' hearts. Recent examples include a campaign with CALM, where 100% of net profits from the sale of a range of Jacamo t-shirts will be donated to CALM. We also raised £37,000 for The Prince's Trust by donating £1 for each item sold in our Simply Be International Women's Day edit.

Our colleagues are also encouraged to give their time to support a local charity or community cause through our Make A Difference volunteering scheme.

We continue to be active members of the ETI (Ethical Trading Initiative). We participate in a number of programmes

• Leicester – Along with a number of retailers we commissioned independent research into Leicester’s garment manufacturing sector. It was felt that some substantive research was needed to understand the situation before we decide on the relevant action. The report highlighted a number of issues surrounding excessive working hours, low wages and unauthorised sub-contracting. We are working on a programme to tackle all these issues raised working with trade unions and civil society. We are committed to support our suppliers in Leicester to raise the standards of the industry as a whole.

• Tamil Nadu, Southern India – Working with other retailers and civil society we are tackling the wider Sumangali scheme. This scheme is where young, usually women workers, are attracted to employment in mills and factories in the Tiripur region with the promise of paid work, safe accommodation and a final cash lump sum payment at the end of the working period. However research has shown some of these schemes are bonded labour, with excessive working hours, poor living conditions and lump sums not being paid at the end of the scheme. We are working across the industry to set up a regulation, inspection and service model that can be used in all mills and factories. The project is engaging 2,650 workers across 6 spinning mills and 1 factory.