Supporting the national effort during Covid-19

As one of the UK’s leading online fashion retailers, we want to do all we can to support the national effort against coronavirus, beyond protecting our people and our customers.

Teams across the business have been working hard over the past few weeks to offer our support and industry connections to the Government, the NHS and the local communities in which we operate, co-ordinated by our Chief Information Officer, Cliff Cohen.

We wanted to share an overview of these different workstreams, and in doing so hope that we might facilitate further collaboration with our partners and colleagues. If we can offer you our expertise or capabilities to support the work you are doing, please contact us at csr@asos.com.

Supporting frontline healthcare workers

We want to show our massive appreciation to the hard-working frontline healthcare staff in the UK, who are doing everything they can to keep people healthy and safe during these uncertain times.

That’s why we’re donating thousands of much-needed items to NHS front-line staff at NHS Nightingale London, and NHS Trusts and hospitals that are either close to where we operate or have been in direct contact with us to ask for our support. This work has been driven by the suggestions of our customers and colleagues, many of whose friends and family are front-line staff and have been asking for specific products to make things easier for them. Some of the things we’ve donated include washable tote bags, so staff can take a change of clothes with them to work and then wash these – and the bag – at the end of each day; hand creams; and comfortable clothing for them to wear at work and at home, like tees and hoodies. Take a look here. We’ve also donated hundreds of headbands to one NHS Trust, as frontline workers are able to hook their facemasks to these headbands as a more comfortable alternative to wearing them behind the ears.

We’re also taking part in the call from 3DCrowd UK to devote all of our 3D printing capacity in our London Head Office to print as many face screens for frontline healthcare workers as we can.

We want to show our support in as many ways as we can, so we’re also offering NHS staff a 20% ASOS discount with the Blue Light Card.

Fundraising products

To further support our amazing frontline workers, we have launched a range of fundraising products with the proceeds going to charities supporting NHS trusts and our local communities:

Heroes

We’ve created a series of limited-edition unisex ‘heroes’ tees and hoodies with sizes ranging from S to XL, made from 100% organic materials. All of the profits from the sale of these will be matched by ASOS and donated to charities supporting our local NHS trusts and communities. The range is expected to raise over £200,000 in total, with £50,000 ringfenced to support local charities helping our local communities throughout the crisis. The rest of the proceeds will then be donated equally between two of our local NHS charities; Barnsley Hospital Charity (registration 1058037) and University College London Hospitals Charity UK (registration 1165398).

Choose our NHS

We’re also expanding on work with our long-term charity partner, Choose Love (Help Refugees), to launch a range of ‘Choose Our NHS’ and ‘Choose Our Carers’ tees. Designed by Katharine Hamnett, sourced and printed by ASOS, the new t-shirt range replicates the iconic Choose Love t-shirts, with new slogans ‘Choose Our Carers’ and ‘Choose Our NHS’. The new designs show solidarity and support for the nation’s care workers and NHS staff, who are keeping some of the most vulnerable members of the community safe, happy and healthy. Each t-shirt in the range will cost £20, and all net profits from each sale will be donated to the Care Workers Charity and NHS Charities Together and will be matched by ASOS, who will be selling the t-shirts. All proceeds will help support these vital workers by providing financial aid to care workers and NHS staff.

Connecting our UK supplier base to the Government and the NHS

In the past few weeks, we have played a key role in connecting our UK-based suppliers and manufacturing partners with the UK Government. By doing so we are helping guide our UK supply chain to switch to manufacturing vital clothing equipment such as scrubs for the NHS and care workers.

We have also been supporting our international suppliers and manufacturers to put them in contact with the right departments within Government, to help speed up the procurement of vital PPE supplies, like surgical clothing, gowns, masks, and eye protection.

Offering our logistics capabilities to local efforts

We have contacted Barnsley, Sheffield and Doncaster councils – all local to our Great Houghton and West Moor Park logistics facilities – to offer our logistics capabilities and warehouse space in support of their local NHS efforts. We’ve offered to:

• Provide additional storage and inventory management for medical supplies (such as scrubs, bedding and masks) at our Doncaster facility located at West Moor Park, which is open seven days a week;
• Within this 200,000 square feet facility, provide storage & distribution services for ca. 1 million units across South Yorkshire to ensure supplies can get to where they’re needed as soon as possible;
• Additionally, we’ve offered two floors of 10,000 sq. ft. office space, which could provide a working space or additional storage.

Supporting our ASOS Made in Kenya partners

The SOKO Kenya team that produce the ASOS Made In Kenya collection has reduced production on the range to focus on the important production of cloth masks, now a legal requirement in Kenya where they are based. ASOS has funded the production of 20,000 masks and has donated the Made In Kenya fabric that is already at the factory. The masks will be donated and distributed to their local communities.

Supporting small business through ASOS Marketplace

We know this is a difficult time for small businesses, so we’ve decided to do what we can to support our 800+ independent boutiques on ASOS Marketplace by removing their monthly rental fee for hosting product on the site. It’s a small amount off their monthly costs, but we know that can make a big difference for a small business. Some of our boutiques have even decided to give the money they’re saving to charity.

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