Next Best Clothing Ltd - Expert in Second-Hand Clothing Sorting & Export

Company overview

Next Best Clothing Ltd is a British collector, sorter and exporter at Unit 6-7 Omega Business Village, Thurston Road, Northallerton, North Yorkshire DL6 2NJ. It states a team of over 100 colleagues across the UK and abroad, and exports to Western and Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa.

The company was established in 1990 and incorporated in 1998 by Marcus Fitch-Peyton together with his father. Note that the site elsewhere describes leadership in textile recycling since the 1950s and over 70 years in the trade, which is a longer span than the company itself has existed. The two claims are best read as a family lineage in textiles and a company founded in 1990, and if the exact figure matters to you it is worth asking which is which.

One piece of history stands out: the company says it was among the first UK exporters of second-hand clothing to Russia and the emerging Soviet markets, which places it at the opening of what became one of the largest destinations in the European trade.

Four collection channels, and why that is the real specification

Next Best Clothing owns its own supply rather than buying it in, through four separate brands:

• Bag 2 School, running school collections across the UK, Northern Ireland, Ireland, the Netherlands and Belgium.
• Bag 2 Charity, launched in May 2020, taking home collections through an online booking system.
• Cash 4 Clothes / Smart Recycling, buying directly from individuals over the counter.
• Green Garments, the wholesale arm that sells the sorted result.

Most buyers ask a supplier what grade they are being offered. With a company like this, the more useful question is which collection channel the stock came from, because the channel shapes the contents more than the grade name does.

Think about who fills each bag. A school collection is parents clearing out the wardrobes of growing children, so it runs heavily to children's wear and to garments outgrown rather than worn out. The company confirms this directly: it says Bag 2 School collections include cream grades with a focus on children's wear. A home collection booked online is usually a whole-wardrobe clear-out, adult and mixed-season. A cash-for-clothes counter attracts people who believe their clothes are worth money, which skews towards recognisable labels and also towards optimism. Clothing bank material is the most anonymous of the four and therefore the most variable.

If your market is children's clothing, that means school-collection stock is worth asking for by name, and it is the kind of request only a supplier who runs its own collection can actually fulfil. Buyers comparing second-hand clothing suppliers should add the origin channel to the specification alongside the grade, and the grade glossary explains what cream and Grade A should mean once you have settled where the material came from.

What is on offer

• Used clothing bales from cash-for-clothes collections, original untouched door-to-door collections, school collections and clothing banks, available sorted or unsorted, with cream grade and Grade A for buyers who need premium.
• Charity shop goods, original credential clothing sourced through charity shop partnerships across the UK.
• Clothing bank collections of clothing, shoes and accessories, supplied in bales by weight.
• Bric-a-brac and household goods: antiques, clocks, kitchenware, musical instruments, ornaments, pictures, sports equipment, tools, toys and utensils.

The phrase to notice is original untouched door-to-door, which is the real thing rather than the de-creamed version several exporters sell under the same word. If that is what you want, get the word untouched into the order confirmation, because it is precisely the term that gets used loosely elsewhere. The description of how sorting houses work through original bags explains why untouched and nearly untouched are different products at different prices.

A published complaints procedure

The site carries a complaints policy and a page for filing a complaint. That sounds like a formality and is not.

In this trade, a disputed load is normally resolved by telephoning whoever you dealt with and hoping. A written procedure means there is a defined route, a record and somebody whose job it is to answer, which matters most to the buyer who is furthest away and has least leverage. It is a small signal about how the company is run, and it is one of very few of its kind in this directory. Read the policy before your first order so you know what evidence they expect, since photographs taken at unpacking are almost always the deciding factor.

The charity side, and what it means for supply

The company works with charities, schools and community groups, states that collections cost the charity nothing, and lists partners including Fighting Ependymoma, the Children's Air Ambulance, Your Local Air Ambulance and Kidney Research Yorkshire.

Beyond the ethics, that network is the reason the supply exists. A collector with hundreds of school and charity relationships has an intake that does not depend on the price it can pay at the counter, which tends to make volumes steadier through a soft market than a pure cash-for-clothes operation. For a wholesale buyer planning a season rather than a single container, steadiness of intake is worth as much as price. Contact is [email protected], +44 1609 780474 or +44 7725 246259.

Frequently asked questions

Where is Next Best Clothing based?

At Unit 6-7 Omega Business Village, Thurston Road, Northallerton, North Yorkshire DL6 2NJ, in the north of England.

How old is the company?

It was established in 1990 and incorporated in 1998, though the site also refers to leadership in textile recycling since the 1950s, which appears to describe the family rather than the company.

Where does the stock come from?

From its own collection brands: school collections, home collections booked online, cash-for-clothes counters and clothing banks, plus charity shop partnerships.

Can I ask for children's wear specifically?

It is worth asking for school-collection stock, since the company states those collections include cream grades with a focus on children's wear.

What grades are available?

Sorted or unsorted stock, with cream grade and Grade A offered for buyers needing premium quality, plus original credential clothing from charity shops.