Clothing
Established in 1991 in Geelong. Today they have over 600 stores in Australia, NZ, Singapore and Hong Kong. Acquired Supre in Oct 2013.
Company Assessment
(Last updated Dec 2024)
Praise
Criticism
Information
Cotton On Clothing Pty Ltd
Praise
Criticism
Information
Cruelty free company
This company has either signed PETA's statement of assurance or provided a statement verifying that they do not conduct or commission any animal tests.
Source: PETA
(2023)
3/5 for packaging performance
This company received a packaging performance level of 3 (Advanced) in its 2024 APCO Annual Report. Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO) is a not-for-profit organisation leading the development of a circular economy for packaging in Australia. Each year, APCO Members are required to submit an APCO Annual Report and Action Plan, which includes an overall performance level from 1 (Getting Started) to 5 (Beyond Best Practice).
Source: APCO
(2024)
International Accord signatory
This company is a signatory to the International Accord for Health and Safety in the Textile & Garment Industry. The International Accord was established in 2021 as the successor to the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, which was established in 2013 in the wake of the Rana Plaza building collapse that killed more than 1,000 workers and seriously injured thousands more. Company signatories to the International Accord commit to: Disclosing all factories producing for them in countries with International Accord programs; Ensuring all listed factories participate in the inspection, remediation, and safety training programs; Supporting factories to ensure remediation is financially feasible; Contributing to the operational costs of International Accord programs.
Source: International Accord
(2023)
COVID Fashion Commitments
In 2020 Baptist World Aid Australia released The COVID Fashion Report, a special edition of their Ethical Fashion Report. The report is framed around six COVID Fashion Commitments that ask companies to demonstrate the steps and measures they are taking to protect and support the most vulnerable workers in their supply chains. This company showed evidence of actions that cover ALL areas of the COVID Fashion Commitments.
Turkmen Cotton Pledge signatory
This company has signed the Cotton Pledge with the Responsible Sourcing Network, signifying a public commitment to not knowingly source Turkmen cotton for the manufacturing of any of their products until the Government of Turkmenistan ends the practice of forced labor in its cotton sector. Each cotton season, Turkmen public sector workers are forced by the government to fulfill cotton picking quotas and private businesses are forced to contribute to the efforts financially or with labor. This places a huge burden on the health, education, and general well-being of Turkmen citizens.
Efforts to pay a living wage
Oxfam Australia's Company Tracker compares the big clothing brands on their efforts to pay a living wage to the women working in their factories. This company has released the names and addresses of their tier one suppliers, has made a public commitment to pay a living wage within a set timeframe, and has implemented ring fencing wages in their supply chain.
Source: Oxfam Australia
(2024)
Transparency Pledge
The Apparel and Footwear Supply Chain Transparency Pledge (Transparency Pledge) helps demonstrate apparel and footwear companies' commitment towards greater transparency in their manufacturing supply chain. Transparency of a company's manufacturing supply chain better enables a company to collaborate with civil society in identifying, assessing, and avoiding actual or potential adverse human rights impacts. This is a critical step that strengthens a company's human rights due diligence. This company is fully aligned with the Transparency Pledge, thereby committing to regularly publish on its website a list naming all sites that manufacture its products.
Source: Transparency Pledge
(2019)
10/100 in What Fuels Fashion?
What Fuels Fashion? is a single-issue, special edition of the Fashion Transparency Index. The 2024 report ranked 250 of the world's largest fashion brands and retailers according to their level of disclosure on climate and energy-related data in their own operations and supply chains. Brands owned by this company scored 10%. The average score was 18% and the highest score was 75%.
Source: Fashion Revolution
(2024)
Workers rights in Bangladesh
According to Oxfam's 2019 report, "Made in Poverty - The True Cost of Fashion", this company sources from Bangladesh and Vietnam. Some of the many disturbing findings of the research in Bangladesh were that 100 per cent of workers interviewed were not paid a living wage, nine out of ten could not afford enough food for themselves and their families until their next monthly pay and seven out of 10 could not pay for medical treatment when they were sick or injured. In Vietnam, 99 per cent were not paid a living wage and seven out of 10 women interviewed felt their pay was not enough to meet their needs.
Source: Oxfam Australia
(2019)
2/5 on Good On You
This company owns brands rated 'Not good enough' by Good On You, whose rating system considers the most important social and environmental issues facing the fashion industry to assess a brand's impact on people, the planet and animals.
Source: Good On You
(2022)
Forced by back-pay $278,000 to workers
In July 2010 Cotton On back-paid 3289 of its employees more than $278,000 after it was discovered the company had failed to pay staff for attending training out of working hours. Cotton On Clothing Pty Ltd entered into an enforceable undertaking with the Fair Work Ombudsman whereby the company posted an apology on Facebook, sent Human Resources managers to workplace compliance training and agreed to provide 3 consecutive annual reports on its active compliance.
Source: Fair Work Ombudsman
(2010)
Fined over product safety
In 2012 Cotton On was fined $1 million for selling children's sleepwear that was deemed so flammable it shouldn't have even been sold in Australia. Cotton On have also been at the centre of a number of controversies over the past few years including advertising bungles and an underpayment scandal. [Listed under Information due to age of court finding]
Source: news article
(2012)
Breaching advertising codes
This company has been criticised for offensive advertising. In 2007 Ad Standards upheld complaints about a poster by this company on the grounds that it breached advertising codes. The ad was subsequently discontinued or modified.
Source: Ad Standards
(2018)
Copyright infringement
The Full Federal Court of Australia ordered Cotton On Clothing Pty Ltd to pay damages of $280,000 to Elwood Clothing Pty Ltd after finding that Cotton On Clothing Pty Ltd had infringed the copyright of T-shirt and swing-tag designs belonging to Elwood Cothing Pty Ltd.
Uzbek Cotton Pledge signatory
This company signed the Uzbek Cotton Pledge with the Responsible Sourcing Network, signifying a public commitment to not knowingly source Uzbek cotton for the manufacturing of any of their products until the Government of Uzbekistan ends the practice of forced labor in its cotton sector. However the Pledge was lifted in March 2022 after the Uzbek Forum for Human Rights, who monitored the annual cotton harvest since 2010, found no state-imposed forced labor in the 2021 harvest.
Source: Cotton Campaign
(2022)
Angora ban
This company has taken angora items off the shelves and promised not to use angora again, following a PETA campaign launched in Dec 2013 which revealed the cruelty inflicted on angora rabbits in Chinese factory farms, where 90% of the world's angora is produced.
Source: PETA
(2018)
Cotton On Foundation
The Cotton On Foundation raises funds through the sale of charity items, such as reusable shopping bags, in Cotton On Group stores. With these funds they assist several project and other charities.
Source: company website
(2020)
Better Cotton Initiative member
This company is a member of the Better Cotton Initiative, a voluntary program which encourages the adoption of better management practices in cotton cultivation to achieve measurable reductions in key environmental impacts, while improving social and economic benefits for cotton farmers, small and large, worldwide.
Source: Better Cotton Initiative
(2022)
Supplier Factory Disclosure List
This company is one of of a handful of major Australian fashion retailers to publish the names and addresses of their supplier factories.
Source: company website
(2016)
Ethics claims
This company has ethics claims on its website under the headings of sustainability, community partnerships and ethical sourcing.
Source: company website
(2021)
ACT participant
This company is a participant in the Action, Collaboration, Transformation (ACT) initiative, an initiative between international brands and retailers, manufacturers, and trade unions to address the issue of living wages in the textile and garment supply chain.
Source: IndustriALL
(2021)
Modern Slavery statement
California, the UK and Australia have all enacted legislation requiring companies operating within their borders to disclose their efforts to eradicate modern slavery from their operations and supply chains. Follow the link to see this company's disclosure statement.
Source: company website
(2016)
2/4 for purchasing practices
In 2020 Oxfam evaluated several clothing brand's purchasing practices across seven categories: whether a brand provides accurate forecasts of upcoming work to factories; its price negotiation strategies; whether a factory's environmental and social compliance influences the brand's purchasing decisions; how a brand places orders with factories; what its payment terms are; commitment to pay a living wage; and the transparency of a brand's supply chain. This company was given a score of 2 with 4 being the highest possible score.
Source: Oxfam Australia
(2020)
No Uyghur forced labour
In early 2017, China's Communist Party began a new incarceration campaign, rounding up, detaining and forcibly indoctrinating over 1 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minority ethnic groups in the far-western region. A coalition of more than 180 human rights groups is calling on apparel brands and retailers to stop using forced labour in the Uyghur Region and end their complicity in the Chinese government's human rights abuses. In 2019 the ABC reported that this company stopped buying cotton from the region over human rights concerns.
Source: ABC
(2019)
BHRRC company profile
Business & Human Rights Resource Centre digital platform presents news and allegations relating to the human rights impact of over 20,000 companies. Their enhanced Company Dashboards also include financial information, key data points based on corporate policies, and scores from prominent civil society benchmarks. Follow the link and use the search function to view this company's dashboard.
Source: BHRRC
(2022)
Modern Slavery disclosure quality
Human Rights Law Centre's 2022 report, "Broken Promises: Two years of corporate reporting under Australia's Modern Slavery Act", examines statements submitted to the Government's Modern Slavery Register by 92 companies sourcing from four sectors with known risks of modern slavery: garments from China, rubber gloves from Malaysia, seafood from Thailand and fresh produce from Australia. Modern slavery statements are analysed to see if they comply with the mandatory reporting requirements, identify or disclose obvious modern slavery risks, and demonstrate effective actions to address risks. This company's modern slavery disclosure statement received a rating in the 41-60% range. The average score was 44% and the highest score was 89%.
Source: Human Rights Law Centre
(2022)
45/100 in Ethical Fashion Report
Baptist World Aid Australia's '2024 Ethical Fashion Report' assessed 120 companies on their efforts to mitigate against the risks of forced labour, child labour and worker exploitation in their supply chains, as well as protect the environment from the harmful impacts of the fashion industry. Assessment criteria fall into five main categories: policy & governance, tracing & risk, auditing and supplier relationships, worker empowerment and environmental sustainability. This company received a score of 45/100. The average score was 31.3 and the highest score was 90.
Licensing agreement with Time Warner
In 2013 Cotton On Kids, the childrenswear arm of Cotton On, teamed up with Warner Bros Consumer Products Australia and New Zealand (part of media conglomerate Time Warner). Starting Jan 2014 Cotton On Kids selected baby and children's apparel and accessories will be sporting DC Comics' Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman designs. Time Warner is the world's largest media conglomerate.
Source: Ragtrader
(2013)
22/100 in Fashion Transparency Index
The 2023 Fashion Transparency Index reviewed 250 of the world's largest fashion brands and retailers and ranked them according to how much they disclose about their human rights and environmental policies, practices and impacts. Brands owned by this company scored 22%, signifying it is doing a bit more than the others when it comes to having policies and commitments in place and auditing and reporting activities, but could be doing more. The average score was 26% and the highest score was 83%.
Source: Fashion Revolution
(2023)
Company Details
Founded:
1991
Employees:
4500
(2012)
Subsidiaries:
Supre Holdings Pty Ltd
Teen female fashion retailer
Founded in 1984 by Hans and Helen van der Meulen. Operates across Australia and New Zealand. Clothes are designed in Australia and made locally and offshore. Acquired by Cotton On in Oct 2013.
Contact Details
Address:
14 Shepherd Court, North Geelong, VIC, 3215, Australia
Phone:
03 5277 7000
Website:
Products / Brands
Cotton On
Ceres Life
Womens Fashion
Cotton On
Everyday Apparel
Cotton On
Womens Fashion
Cotton On
Menswear (casual)
Cotton On Body
Activewear
Cotton On Body
Underwear/Socks/Sleepwear
Cotton On Kids
Childrenswear
Factorie
Youth Fashion
Rubi
Womens Shoes
Rubi
Cosmetics
Supre
Youth Fashion
Typo
Stationery Stores
Typo
Homewares Stores