MARMEX EXPORT Used Clothing and Second-Hand Goods, Zwolle

Company overview

MARMEX Export is a Dutch export trader at Graham Bellstraat 12, 8013 PL Zwolle, offering used clothing alongside a much wider catalogue: shoes, bicycles, fridges, televisions, electronics, mattresses, copiers, shop-returned goods, automotive parts and vehicles, and foodstuffs.

Read that list before anything else, because it tells you what kind of business this is. Marmex is a trader and a consolidator, not a sorting plant. The clothing it sells comes, in its own words, from one of the largest sorting companies in Europe, collected from markets in Holland, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland.

Buying at one remove: what you gain and what you give up

The gain is real and specific. A general importer in West Africa often wants one container holding several product types: some clothing, a few fridges, a batch of bicycles, maybe a vehicle. No sorting plant can fill that container, because a sorter sells one thing. A trader with this catalogue can, and it is why businesses like Marmex exist alongside the factories in this directory. The company also states it loads vans and trucks as well as full containers, which suits buyers below container scale.

What you give up is control of the sort. There is no factory of theirs to visit, the grading standard belongs to a supplier you have not met, and the phrase uniform and constant quality depends entirely on whether the same sorter fills every load. That gives you the two questions to ask first: which sorting house does the clothing come from, and does it stay the same from batch to batch. A straight answer to both makes the offer as good as buying direct, and an evasive one tells you the consistency claim is aspirational. Anyone comparing second-hand clothing suppliers should keep traders and sorters in separate columns rather than judging them on price per kilo alone.

The tropical line, described more precisely than most

Marmex describes its Used Tropical Clothes in a way that deserves quoting: mixed, unselected, needing to be sorted by the buyer, cheapest in big bales of 400 kg, and second grade in the sense that the cream has already been removed, while worn-out, torn and heavy materials have also been taken out.

That is the clearest definition of a de-creamed original anywhere in this directory, and it is worth understanding as a category rather than as one company's product. You are buying a bale where the best pieces are gone and the worst pieces are also gone. It is not true original, which is a genuine lottery with both extremes still inside, and it is not graded goods, where somebody has already made the decisions for you.

The economics follow directly. Your yield is more predictable than from original, because the unsellable fraction has been pulled, so less of the weight you pay freight on is destined for the bin. Your ceiling is lower, because the pieces that would have paid for the bale on their own were taken out first. That makes it a sensible buy for a price-driven market where volume moves at a steady low price, and a poor buy if your business model depends on finding branded items. Set against a Cream or Grade A purchase it is a different trade entirely, which is exactly what the grade vocabulary exists to keep straight, and the description of how sorting plants strip a stream in stages explains where a de-creamed bale sits in that sequence.

Bale sizes map onto the two products

Clothing is offered in small bales of 45 kg, 55 kg or 70 kg, or other weights on request, while the tropical line is cheapest in 400 kg bales.

That split is logical rather than arbitrary. Graded goods go into bales light enough to be carried and sold on intact, because the buyer is not going to open them. Unselected tropical goes into a 400 kg press because the buyer will be opening and sorting it anyway, so the only thing that matters is the cost of moving the weight. If you are quoted the tropical line in small bales, you are paying for pressing and strapping you will immediately undo.

Shoes are described as collected daily from markets in Holland, Germany and Belgium, then sorted and graded by experienced graders.

Before ordering

No prices, no defect rules and no grade ladder are published, which is normal for a trading house. Fix in writing which line you are buying, the bale weight and its tolerance, and the origin of the clothing. Then treat the first load as a test of the consistency claim rather than a proof of it. For a wholesale buyer whose real problem is filling one container with several categories at once, this kind of supplier solves something a sorting plant cannot.

Marmex Export is at Graham Bellstraat 12, 8013 PL Zwolle, Netherlands, with a post office box at P.O. Box 95.

Frequently asked questions

Where is Marmex Export based?

At Graham Bellstraat 12, 8013 PL Zwolle in the Netherlands.

Does Marmex sort the clothing itself?

No. It states that the clothing comes from one of the largest sorting companies in Europe, collected from markets in Holland, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland, so ask which sorter supplies your line and whether it stays the same.

What bale sizes are available?

Small bales of 45 kg, 55 kg or 70 kg for clothing, other weights on request, and big bales of about 400 kg for the tropical line.

What exactly is the tropical line?

Mixed unselected clothing that the buyer sorts. It is second grade because the cream has been removed, but worn-out, torn and heavy items have also been taken out before baling.

What else does the company export?

Shoes, bicycles, fridges, televisions, electronics, mattresses, copiers, computers, shop-returned goods, automotive parts and vehicles, and foodstuffs, loaded in containers, trucks or vans.