Euro Used Clothing: Leading Wholesale Exporter of European Secondhand Textiles

Company overview

Euro Used Clothing b.v. is a Dutch sorting plant at Mark S. Clarkelaan 15, 4761 RK Zevenbergen, inside the Moerdijk industrial park with its own port position, number 514, about half an hour from Rotterdam.

The published figures are unusually concrete. The company was founded in 2000, handles approximately 35 tonnes of used textiles every day, and does it with a team of 45 people. It is the youngest sorting facility within the Boer Group.

What 35 tonnes across 45 people actually means

Divide one figure by the other and you get roughly 780 kg of throughput per person per working day. That is worth doing because it is the quickest way to tell an industrial line from a warehouse with tables in it.

A number in that range implies mechanised feeding, conveyor sorting and a baling press keeping pace, with the people doing the part machines still cannot do, which is deciding what each garment is worth. It also gives you a yardstick for other suppliers. If a plant claims a daily tonnage that would need each of its staff to handle several times that, ask what the machinery does and what counts as processed, because collection weighed at the gate and sorted output are different numbers.

For scale within this directory, 35 tonnes a day puts this plant roughly seven times the size of a small independent sorter and well below the largest UK operations. That middle position is the useful part: enough volume to fill containers reliably, small enough that a single account still matters.

Being part of a group changes what you are buying

Membership of the Boer Group is stated plainly, and the company describes what it takes from that: access to decades of expertise, shared best practice, and the structure of an established international network, combined with the flexibility of a newer plant.

Read that with a buyer's eye and it cuts two ways. In your favour: a group member is not a single point of failure. Its intake does not depend on one collection contract, sister plants can cover a gap, and quality practice travels between sites rather than being reinvented. Against you: inside a large group your account competes with existing allocations, and the answer to a request for a special sort may come from a policy rather than from the person you are talking to.

The practical question is therefore how much the plant decides locally. Ask who signs off a custom specification and whether the grade names you are quoted are the group's or this site's, because those two answers tell you whether you are dealing with a factory or a sales office. Anyone comparing second-hand clothing suppliers should note that the group's own presence in this directory publishes almost nothing, so this subsidiary is the better window into how it works.

Sorting to the market, and the audit question

The company says it sorts personally, tailors the selection to each customer's preferences, and has extensive knowledge of the quality standards required in different markets. It also states that it undergoes regular external audits.

The first claim is common and the second is checkable, so put weight on the second. Ask which standard the audit is against, who performs it and how often, because a named scheme with an annual cycle is a genuine assurance and an unnamed one is a sentence. Dutch sorters in this trade are typically certified under national textile recovery schemes and registered as waste-textile traders, and if this plant holds those the details are worth having in writing before the first order.

No grade ladder, bale weight or price list is published. Fix those in writing too. If the vocabulary is unfamiliar, the standard grade definitions explain what to ask for, and the account of how sorting plants divide a stream shows why a plant of this size can offer narrow lines that a smaller one cannot.

The location is a real advantage

Moerdijk is a deep-water industrial port between Rotterdam and Antwerp, and the company lists its own port number there. A plant that loads inside a port complex rather than trucking to one saves a drayage leg on every container, which is a small saving per kilo and a consistent one.

For a road buyer the same position works: Belgium, Germany and northern France are a day away. Contact is [email protected], +31 168 409 409, with a fax on +31 168 409 400. For a wholesale programme that needs steady container volume rather than the cheapest possible kilo, a mid-sized plant inside a port with a group behind it is a sensible shortlist entry.

Frequently asked questions

Where is Euro Used Clothing based?

At Mark S. Clarkelaan 15, 4761 RK Zevenbergen, in the Moerdijk industrial park in the Netherlands, with port position 514.

How much does the plant process?

Approximately 35 tonnes of used textiles a day with a team of 45 people, which works out at roughly 780 kg per person per day.

When was the company founded?

In 2000. It is described as the youngest sorting facility within the Boer Group.

Is the sorting adapted to the destination market?

The company states that it sorts personally, tailors the selection to customer preferences and knows the quality standards required in different markets.

Is the operation audited?

It states that it undergoes regular external audits. Ask which standard, which auditor and how often, since a named scheme is worth more than the general claim.