B2B launch Treadler offers small firms access to H&M’s global supply chain

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Mar 4, 2020

H&M Group has announced a major initiative, called Treadler, around sustainability and its supply chain with a fairly radical move that will see it offering access to its global supply chain to external companies.

The B2B project is part of the Swedish company’s push to make fashion production more eco-friendly and will see smaller brands using Treadler in a wide variety of areas such as product development and sourcing, production and logistics. 

“New concepts and initiatives are part of H&M Group’s strategy to drive sustainable growth,” it said. “Treadler will enable its clients to benefit from H&M Group’s expertise, long-term supplier partnerships and strategic sustainability work, thereby helping them to overcome initial business barriers and accelerate sustainable change.”

Treadler’s MD Gustaf Asp said: “We see the opportunity to utilise the full potential of H&M Group’s extensive investments and progressive sustainability work by catering to clients’ needs and contributing to driving long-term growth for H&M Group, while driving change in our industry. In discussions with other companies, we have experienced a demand for these kinds of services.”

Treadler will initially work on a small scale and “provide a service that is tailored to suit the need of each client”.

The move is the first big announcement under new group CEO Helena Helmersson, but continues a sustainability focus that has run throughout the group’s operations in recent years.

Gustaf Asp told the FT that the company isn’t “concerned or afraid of opening up the supply chain. Individual brands can only make it so far. To take it further in the industry we need to open it up to collaboration.”

Helmersson meanwhile added that the fashion industry as a whole hasn't been sustainable enough and that in order to future-proof it, companies have to transform their supply chains. H&M has been working on this and has “realised that the output of our efforts can be valuable for others too.”