Designer converts leftover material from a business into an online store, generating revenue for small businesses

Courtney Holm was struck by the huge volume of excess materials in Australia as she searched for fabrics to make clothing for her green fashion label.

“I would go out to these various places, and I may see all of this surplus material”, Ms Holm said.

“You go to a bigger shop, or you go to a mill, and you see a warehouse full of it.

“And it’s just really shocking that this substance wasn’t getting used.”

A woman in a hi-vis vest inspects fabric at a factory.

What if someone digitized whatever and put it all together, after centuries of pondering how to make it accessible to those who could use it?

No one did, so Ms. Holm applied for a grant from the Circular Economy Business Innovation Centre, which provides funding for projects that prevent goods from going to waste.

In essence, that was the kick-starter needed for us to really create a system and test it out to see what buyers were actually looking for, as well as the people who are holding the deficit, and what their requirements were. ” she told ABC Radio Perth.

“The captain went so well that we decided to turn it into a company,” she said.

Woman cutting fabric on table inside warehouse full of fabric

That company, Melbourne-based Round Purchasing, is now so powerful that Ms Holm is winding down her clothing brand to focus on it full time.

Unknown fashion spend

While the fast-fashion economy and the volume of clothing that is discarded annually are major contributors to the issue of fashion waste, unused fabric is also a significant, though less obvious, issue.

“It’s around $210 billion of]global, monthly ] price that is not being always claimed up from those components,” Ms Holm said.

“So there’s an economical and a conservation push for this to be solved.”

Rubbish dump filled with discarded clothing and rubbish.

There are a variety of causes for cloth manufacturers’ excessive deficit material.

Ms Holm said several mills had big minimum order requirements, of 500 or 1, 000 metres or more, which forced companies to get more product than they really needed.

The technology used to make fabrics and materials just produces a certain amount of time, according to the statement. “They’re built for level,” she said.

The additional may be caused by factories not selling as much of a production run as anticipated.

“No-one’s trying to synthesize because it’s cheap to accumulate,” Ms Holm said.

Anyone can use it, right?

At Circular Sourcing, surplus stuff is listed for sale, either by the inch or by the move, depending on the sellers’ preference, and anyone, from home-sewing enthusiasts to another fashion brands or designers, you get the fabric.

We don’t have any restrictions on who can actually purchase on the platform, Ms. Holm said. “If you are just interested in working with small amounts of material, or you just want to make something for yourself at home.”

Ms. Holm said that wasn’t the case because most labels wanted their fabric to be used, despite initial rumors that some labels might not want to sell their surplus stock, especially material with distinctive prints.

“I think that’s such an intriguing sign that things have changed,” she said.

Businesses are shifting away from using deficit, which is a significant component of this change.

For home sewers, she said, it was an opportunity to buy high-quality, often made-to-order, fabric that wasn’t available for sale at other fabric stores.

“Online they can see what the fabric is, where it came from. If there’s origin info that all gets captured when effectively,” Ms Holm said.

Cash flow for small company

Jillian Boustred, who founded her namesake little Sydney-based fashion brand in 2016, is one of many designers today able to sell her excessive cotton through Ms Holm’s website.

Prior to this time, we had about 50 to 100 metres of surplus fabric per season, which is a small number in comparison to other brands. But, it is still wasted and quality fabric that needs to be moved to a new home, according to Ms Boustred.

Composite of a smiling young woman in a suit. At left, she sits on a stool. At right, she looks through a rack of clothing.

She claimed that selling the extra cotton had also increased her small business’ ability to generate additional income.

She said, “Basically, it has allowed us to convert what was waste into a form of cashflow.”

Manufacturing business MTK Australia’s Stephen Morris-Moody said that before he had the opportunity to sell surplus stuff through Round Purchasing, up to 1, 000 feet of the bank’s knit fabrics went empty each year.

Two men can be seen standing behind a large knitting machine.

“It’s made a big difference,” he said.

It has helped us pay back some of our development costs while also preventing the fabrics from getting in the trash.

He claimed that the manufacturing equipment frequently produced excess fabric.

He said, “We are governed by the machinery that dyes and finishes the fabric because we are a manufacturer.” One of these machines is 50 metres long, so that is the minimum we can produce.”

Designs on Asia

Ms. Holm, who receives a commission on each sale, pays the seller for the proceeds, and the rest is returned to the seller.

Ms. Holm claims that the Southern Hemisphere’s adoption of circular selling is new despite the already established rules in Europe.

” Europe is already really quite advanced in this space,” she said.

It’s become a go-to for smaller labels and small businesses for sourcing, especially those that are just starting out and have stricter requirements for their minimum order quantities.

Ms. Holm hopes that Australia and the rest of the world will experience the same level of interest in circular sourcing because so much of the world’s garment manufacturing is done in Asia.

She said, “This is where a lot of our clothing is actually made, which opens up a really big opportunity for materials in the Asia Pacific region in general.”