MARBO USED CLOTHING Textile Sorting Plant, Netherlands (Boer Group)

Company overview, and the country in the old listing

This entry was filed as a British exporter in Walsall with an 01922 phone number. It is not. Marbo is Dutch, trading as Marbo Recycling B.V. and operating one of the sorting plants of the Boer Group. Its parent's own history is unambiguous: the company was started in Dordrecht in 1986 by Marinus Boer, and the name is a contraction of his. Nothing in the company's own material connects it to the West Midlands.

Two practical notes before anything else. The company's website root currently answers with a redirect loop, and the working pages sit under /textiles, /jobs and /disclaimer — if you tried the homepage and concluded the business was gone, try those paths. And no street address or telephone number is published anywhere on the site, only an invitation to contact the sales team by email. Ask for both in writing before you commit to anything.

The most complete specification any supplier in this directory publishes

Setting aside the missing address, Marbo publishes more of the actual commercial terms than any other company catalogued here. Most sites in this trade give you a grade name and a phone number. This one gives you the packaging list, the minimum order, the payment structure, the sanctions position, the loading window and the lead time. That alone makes it a useful reference point for reading everyone else's silence.

• Minimum order: 5,000 kg. Stated flatly, with the words "simple, professional, no discussion" attached to it.
• Packaging across six formats: plastic bags of 25 kg, shoe bags of 25 kg, small bags of 45, 50 and 60 kg, large bags of 80–150 kg, small bales of 40–100 kg and large bales of 300–500 kg.
• Payment: advance terms, a deposit with the balance settled before loading or before release of the shipping documents. Payment must come directly from the contracting company; third-party payments and cash are refused.
• Sanctions: no supply to Russia or Belarus, and resale into those markets is not permitted either.
• Loading window: delivery and handling between 06:00 and 14:00, Monday to Friday.
• Lead time: a sample request returns a tailored proposal with production planning within one to four weeks.

Read the payment clause twice, because it is the one clause here that tells you something about the wider trade. A supplier that refuses third-party payments and cash is a supplier that has been asked for both. If you are new to wholesale buying and a broker offers to settle your invoice on your behalf, understand that serious houses treat that as a reason to stop the deal, not a convenience.

Four grades, and the packaging tells you which is which

The published quality ladder has four rungs plus a residue stream: Extra / Cream described as shop quality for retail and boutique resale; Second Choice for markets and wholesale channels; A Grade, good wearable quality with minor signs of use; and B Grade, wearable with visible wear for value-driven markets. Textiles that cannot be worn go to industrial wiping cloths through the group's recycler.

The detail worth catching is that Extra/Cream is packed in bags and Second Choice in bales. That is not decoration. Bagging protects presentation, and presentation is most of what you are paying for at the top of the ladder; baling compresses and creases, which is fine for a market stall and wrong for a boutique rail. Anywhere else in this directory you have to work that out for yourself. The standard grade vocabulary is worth reading alongside, because Marbo's four rungs map onto it cleanly and can be used to translate a less explicit supplier's offer.

You cannot buy a single category, and that is the honest position

Marbo states directly that it does not supply large volumes of single categories, no men's-only and no children's-only loads, because it works with balanced mixes drawn from incoming European collection streams and production planning. It frames this as fair availability across long-term customers.

That answer is worth more than most of the promises made elsewhere. Collected textile arrives in whatever proportion the public discards it, and no sorter can conjure a container of one category without stripping every other customer's mix. A supplier who cheerfully agrees to a single-category container is either buying it in from someone else, which you are then paying a margin on, or is going to fill the gap with something you did not order. Ask what proportion of the sort a category actually represents before you ask for it in bulk.

Where the material comes from, and where it leaves

Marbo names its intake: used textiles from the Netherlands and Germany, with Germany at 90%, plus the rest of Western Europe. That is a strikingly concentrated sourcing profile and it is useful information about the goods, because collection streams carry the wardrobe of the country they come from. German and Dutch intake means Central European sizing, seasonal weight suited to a continental winter and a brand mix from those markets.

On the outbound side the company prepares goods for export at its own facility and coordinates loading at Rotterdam, with Antwerp as an alternative. International freight, trucking and shipping bookings are the customer's responsibility unless agreed otherwise, though the company names Shipex as a logistics partner it works with. That is an ex-works arrangement in practice: budget for freight yourself and do not assume a delivered price.

The company also runs a genuinely open door. It offers test loadings for new customers tailored to their requirements, and it encourages buyers to visit the facility and watch the sorting. Both offers are worth taking. A test loading is the cheapest information you will ever buy about a supplier, and a plant visit tells you in an hour what six months of emails will not.

Inside the Boer Group, and what the group hands over

Marbo describes itself as one of the most advanced sorting facilities within the Boer Group and says the group operates as one integrated organisation, sharing knowledge, quality standards, backup capacity and network. The directory holds the parent separately, along with Euro Used Clothing, another of the group's sorting plants — three entries that turn out to be one organisation.

The division of labour inside the group also explains two of the answers on Marbo's own FAQ. Vintage is explicitly not part of the core range, and buyers are sent to Tardis Vintage, the group's specialist retro sorter. Unwearable textile goes to Frankenhuis, the group's mechanical recycler. So a buyer approaching Marbo for vintage is not being turned away, they are being routed. It is also a reminder of how thin the vintage line is everywhere: the one house in this catalogue that publishes a figure puts vintage at 3% of intake, which is why groups this size hand it to a dedicated plant instead of asking a general sorter to pick it out.

One caution on scale. Marbo does not publish a tonnage of its own. The parent publishes 400 tonnes a day, but that is the whole group across four countries, and it should not be attached to this plant. If capacity matters to your planning, ask Marbo for its own daily figure rather than inheriting the group's.

Frequently asked questions

Is Marbo a British company?

No. It is Dutch, trading as Marbo Recycling B.V. and part of the Boer Group. The group's own history places its founding in Dordrecht in 1986 by Marinus Boer, whose name it contracts. The Walsall address and 01922 number in the old listing do not come from the company.

What is the minimum order?

5,000 kg per order, stated without qualification. Packaging runs from 25 kg bags to bales of 300–500 kg, chosen with the customer according to product type and loading preferences.

What grades are available?

Extra/Cream shop quality packed in bags, Second Choice market and wholesale quality packed in bales, A Grade good wearable with minor wear, and B Grade wearable with visible wear. Unwearable textile goes to industrial wipers via the group's recycler.

Can I order only men's clothing or only children's wear?

No. The company supplies balanced mixes drawn from its European collection streams and states plainly that it does not sell large volumes of single categories, in order to keep quality and availability consistent across long-term customers.

How are payment and shipping handled?

Advance payment: a deposit, with the balance before loading or before release of shipping documents, paid directly by the contracting company. No third-party payments and no cash. Goods are prepared for export at the facility and loaded at Rotterdam or Antwerp, with freight arranged by the buyer unless agreed otherwise.