Tag Archives: Brands In

Brands In teams with Next/Lipsy for Christmas jumpers

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Brands In is once again supporting Christmas Jumper Day (Friday 10 December 2021), and has created a range of festive Disney Mickey and Minnie sweats to celebrate the popular seasonal event.

The newly launched official Disney lines are available exclusively at Next/Lipsy and are available in a variety of sizes for all the family. As part of Brands In’s new partnership with Next/Lipsy, the Christmas Jumper range can be personalised with the wearer’s name, with an RRP starting at £25. Printed in the UK, all personalised orders will be delivered within seven days of ordering.

Sue Stanley, Licensing Director at Brands In, says: “The popularity of Christmas jumpers continues to grow and the fact that we can now provide a locally sourced personalisation licensed Disney Mickey and Minnie range for customers within a week to UK addresses demonstrates our ongoing ability to be nimble and offer a best-in-class service.  The 2021 festive personalised Disney lines are high in quality with superior print technology, and we’re thrilled to have secured the range exclusively online with Next/Lipsy.”

Brands In taps Plastichead Music’s Tim McDonald to lead new Brands In Merch division

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Leading licensed apparel fashion licensee, Brands In, has created a new division within its business, to be known as Brands In Merch, which will support the growth of the last 12 months, as well as its ongoing European and UK expansion.  

Established with its own entity, Brands In Merch serves as both a wholesale stock programme and Print on Demand business, enabling independent and e-commerce retailers to sell new properties and artists without having to commit to holding large volumes of stock at any given time.  

The division will initially focus on building new key accounts and distributors across the Brands In area footprint, forge new and sustainable relationships, as well as maintain the strong partnerships already in place. Many of these have been established, based on Brands In’s ability to manage its supply and delivery cycle working with locally sourced product and speed-to-market. 

To lead the Brands In Merch business, group MD Rick Lowe has brought in Tim McDonald, who joins from Plastichead Music Distribution where he worked for seventeen years and most recently held the  role of Head of Merchandise and Sales. 

With a background in both sales and retail, as well as having worked in both the UK and USA, McDonald understands how to achieve customer requirements, as well as being able to secure new collaborations and partnerships. In his new role as general manager of Brands In Merch, he will be responsible for the day to day running of the business and delivering upon its ambitious growth plans. 

Lowe said: “We are thrilled to have secured the calibre of talent that Tim brings to Brands In Merch. He’s been quietly working away with us for the last couple of months and we are excited with the activity and planning that’s already bubbling away within the new company.  We look forward to sharing some of these first successes in the coming weeks.” 

Brands In signs pan-European partnership with Disney and its new and existing IP slate

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The licensed fashion apparel licensee, Brands In, has inked a pan-European agreement with Disney, marking a substantial long-term commitment for growth from both companies, to roll out children and adult fashion ranges across all of the Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars franchises.

The partnership will see the roll out of ranges through the remainder of Q1 and into spring/summer this year and covers existing and upcoming IP in the Disney catalogue. In 2020, Brands In saw strong retail sales, including print on demand, with its children and adult ranges.

 As UK and European retail opens up again in the coming months, the 2021 Disney fashion apparel SKU’s designed and printed in-house by Brands In’s creative team will focus on delivery to a range of retail destinations across Europe which includes bricks and mortar as well as online.

The partnership will make use of the Brands In wholesale and print on demand drop ship fulfilment capabilities. Disney has bought into Brands In’s ability to provide quality product that is responsibly sourced, provides a rapid approvals process and delivers to market within a maximum of two weeks.  

Rick Lowe, managing director at Brands In, said: “This is a significant step forward for our Disney business, and a move that we are very excited about. Disney is renowned for the quality of its licensed apparel, as well as its rich IP, particularly with its new Disney+ service.

“Brands In will now be focussing on mainland Europe to combine speed to market across a vast choice of new designs with our apparel ranges. We are proud that Disney are confident in our ability to achieve these ambitious plans and we look forward to continued growth of this partnership.”

Brands In doubles down on sustainability efforts: “Sustainability is here to stay”

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The licensed fashion apparel firm, Brands In, is focusing its efforts on sustainability for 2020 and beyond, aligning itself with a recent surge in both global industry and consumer awareness around the issue.

Since mid-2019 the London-based business has been consciously reviewing all aspects of its supply chain to address sustainability issues and take progressive steps forward. By early 2020, Brands In’s 24/7 apparel print operation had implemented several sustainable ‘ticked-that-box’ elements to its business.

It will continue to develop further initiatives throughout this year.

Firstly, garments are sourced locally in the UK and the business, which has more than 750,000 SKUs across its catalogue, has also achieved a stockless model for 2020 meaning it does not need to hold any blank stock on the factory floor and will only buy in the garments as required.

These are delivered to the business within 24 hours. All product is printed on demand, according to retailer ordering, or consumer online purchases and can be drop-shipped within 48 hours.

The on-shore sourcing, coupled with the drop-shipping means that Brands In has significantly reduced its carbon footprint in the last twelve months.

Meanwhile, in the first quarter of 2020 the company appointed a Sustainability Ambassador from within the business who is responsible for ensuring the efforts are maintained, looking at new ways of building upon achievements to date, as well as observing global trends and new methods of sustainability that can be incorporated into the business. 

Most recently, the company has ensured that associated license label materials will be sustainable from the second half of the year. Additionally, Brands In is currently in development of a number of capsule collections on organic cotton products.

Rick Lowe, managing director at Brands In, said: “We’ve always been conscious of doing our part for the environment, particularly because we operate in a factory environment. Over time it became an increasingly important discussion amongst the team, and we realised there were simple things we could do to make change, but other elements we could work on to make a difference in conversation with our suppliers and clients. 

“Sustainability is here to stay, and we will continue to invest in doing our part for positive change.”