STARTEX UK Ltd Leading Textile Recycling and Secondhand Exporter

Company overview

Startex, trading as STAR-TEX, is a Spanish sorter and exporter of used clothing and footwear at Calle Joaquin Soler El Practicant 9, 46890 Agullent, in the province of Valencia. Despite the wording of older listings, this is a Spanish company, not a British one.

The confusion is understandable, because the goods really are British. Startex states that its merchandise comes mostly from England, and repeats it on both the clothing and the footwear pages.

English goods, a Spanish cost base

That combination is the most interesting thing about this supplier, and it is worth thinking through rather than skimming.

British collection is among the most sought-after raw material in this trade because of its brand mix and its sizing. Buying it and hauling it to inland Valencia before adding any value means paying freight on unsorted weight, roughly a third of which will never be sold as clothing. A sorter only does that if the cost of sorting at the far end is low enough to more than cover the haul, which is precisely what the Alcoy and Agullent textile belt offers: generations of textile labour in a small inland town with cheap industrial space.

For you as a buyer the consequence is concrete. The brand mix in the bale will be British high street, not Spanish, so the labels, the sizing and the weight of the garments follow the United Kingdom. If your market recognises British labels, that is worth paying for. If your customers respond to Spanish or Italian brands, this is the wrong source however good the sorting is. Anyone comparing second-hand clothing suppliers should ask every one of them where the original comes from, because the country of the warehouse and the country of the wardrobe are frequently not the same.

What they publish about recovery

Startex frames its business around a European figure: six million tonnes of textiles and footwear are discarded each year in Europe and around 75 percent of it goes to landfill. Its stated job is the remaining 25 percent, and it says more than half of everything it receives is given a new opportunity.

Take the first two numbers as the company's framing of the market and the third as the one that concerns you, because more than half of intake going back into use is an operational figure rather than a slogan. Note that it is lower than the recovery rates published by the largest Dutch and Belgian plants, several of which claim well above ninety percent. That is not necessarily a worse operation. Those higher figures usually count total diversion, including recycling into fibre and energy recovery, while a reuse rate counts only garments that go back on a body. Ask which of the two you are being quoted, because the difference between recovery and reuse is the difference between a sustainability claim and a statement about what is in your bale.

Product and packing

• Several sorted qualities across children's, youth, men's and women's clothing.
• Summer and winter goods available all year, which follows from a British intake rather than a Mediterranean one.
• Used shoes from recognised brands, also graded into several qualities, packed in sacks.
• Packing in bales or sacks, shipped locally or worldwide in 20 ft or 40 ft high cube containers.
• A separate line of new branded clothing, shoes, bags and accessories with tags.

The new-with-tags line deserves a moment. Selling unworn branded stock alongside graded second-hand is unusual, and for a market trader a small quantity of it at the front of a stall changes how customers read everything behind it. It is a different purchase, though: no grade ladder, no price per kilo, and margins that behave like retail rather than like bales. Ask what the source is, since overstock, cancelled orders and customer returns are three different products with three different defect profiles, and only the first arrives genuinely untouched.

Grade definitions are not published for the used lines. Get the defect rule per quality in writing before the first order and read the standard grade vocabulary first so you can tell a specific answer from a general one. The account of how sorting houses work through British original explains what a plant running on that intake can realistically offer at the top of its ladder.

The company emphasises consistency of quality and availability in the volumes a buyer needs at peak season, and says it supplies businesses large and small. For a wholesale buyer that wants British-origin goods without buying in the UK, this is a route worth pricing. Contact is [email protected] and +34 96 290 76 29.

Frequently asked questions

Where is Startex based?

At Calle Joaquin Soler El Practicant 9, 46890 Agullent, province of Valencia, Spain. It is a Spanish company despite older listings suggesting otherwise.

Where does the clothing come from?

Mostly from England, which means the brand mix and sizing in the bales follow the British market rather than the Spanish one.

What is available and how is it packed?

Several sorted qualities of children's, youth, men's and women's clothing plus branded used shoes, packed in bales or sacks and shipped in 20 ft or 40 ft high cube containers.

Does the company sell new goods?

Yes, there is a separate line of new branded clothing, shoes, bags and accessories with tags, sold to wholesalers, retailers and exporters.

What share of the intake is reused?

The company states that more than half of everything it receives is given a new opportunity, and frames its work as recovering the 25 percent of European textile waste that does not go to landfill.