Fashion brand Marc O'Polo taps Retraced for traceability

Phil Taylor, 31-May-2022

Fashion company Marc O'Polo has signed a deal with Germany's Retraced to provide item-level traceability for its clothing products.

Set up in 2019, Retraced provides a blockchain- and cloud-based chain-of-custody traceability tool that allows customers in the apparel and textiles industries to digitally track products from production to retail, helping them to gain greater insight into their supply chains.

Marc O'Polo said the partnership would increase its production transparency and also allow it to monitor how well it is meeting sustainability goals.

Its entire supplier base have already been brought onto the platform, and the long-term goal is to ensure each individual product is completely and transparently traceable, it said in a statement.

"Complete traceability in the supply chain is one of the most important topics in the industry," said Susanne Schwenger, chief product officer of Marc O'Polo.

"I am pleased we have found a partner in retraced, who can accompany us on this essential and long-term project in an agile and transparent manner by using the latest technology," she added.

Marc O'Polo was established in Stockholm, Sweden in 1967 with a pledge to produce clothing only from natural materials, and has since grown into an international fashion brand with sales of €440m ($471m) in fiscal 2020/21.

Sustainability is one of its key business strategies as it tries to differentite itself in the marketplace.

The company currently describes and labels a product as sustainable if at least 80% of its essential components – leather and denim for example – consist of sustainable materials. By 2023 it wants to hit 100% sustainability for all materials.

"The collaboration between Marc O'Polo and Retraced is an exciting step for the entire fashion industry," said Lukas Pünder, CEO & co-founder of the traceability specialist.

"The project aims to show how deep supply chain transparency is made possible in a scalable way through efficient data exchange between brand and suppliers."