Salvation Army defends work with Kettering Textiles

The Salvation Army has defended its relationship with the commercial company responsible for running its textile recycling scheme, Kettering Textiles, and said it will cooperate fully with any regulatory investigation into its work with the Northamptonshire-based company.

The charity's comments were made in response to a Guardian investigation published yesterday (January 31), in which the newspaper claimed that the directors of the company had earned £10 million since 2008 as a result of the relationship with the Salvation Army's trading arm, the Salvation Army Trading Company (SATCoL).

The newspaper also claimed that the charity was misleading the public about exactly how proceeds from the resale of clothing donations provided through door-to-door collections and textile banks were passed on to the Salvation Army.

But, in a statement issued yesterday, the Salvation Army highlighted the fact that its relationship with Kettering Textiles had resulted in the donation of more than £16 million towards its social and community work in the past three years.

This, it claimed was “money which we would not otherwise have received from a national recycling and shop operation”.

And, it specifically defended the involvement of Kettering Textiles' managing director, Nigel Hanger, in SATCoL, asserting that, while he did sit on the trading arm's board, he was the sole representative of the company to do so.

“The remaining directors of the board are all SATCoL or Salvation Army personnel and this arrangement ensures that the board is able to closely scrutinize, at any time, the ethical operation and relationship between Kettering Textiles and SATCoL,” said the charity's secretary for business administration, Lieutenant Colonel David Hinton.

Proceeds

In terms of the money it gained from working with Kettering Textiles, the charity explained that SATCoL receives two thirds of the proceeds from clothing donations that were sold on for reuse and recycling outside its network of charity shops. At current prices this means it is receiving £240 per tonne of clothing.

The charity stressed that the commercial relationship between the two was outlined on the SATCoL website and its collections bags and that it was also rolling a full statement out on its textile banks which had been approved by the sector's regulatory body, the Fundraising Standards Board (FRSB).

Lt Col Hinton commented: “We are confident that The Salvation Army benefits as much, if not more from this relationship than we would if we worked with another company with whom we do not share that historical relationship.”

And, in light of this, he said that while the charity had not put its collections contract out to formal tender when it was last up for renegotiation – reported by the Guardian to be in 2006 – it was still “confident” it was getting the best value.

“Both SATCoL are Kettering Textiles are acutely aware of the current recycling markets and the costs being charged by competitors,” he added.

Investigations

The charity confirmed it was expecting the FRSB to get in touch with it “shortly” to follow up a complaint made by the Guardian, and had been told by the Charity Commission that it was considering whether it had any role in relation to the claims made by the newspaper.

Lt Col Hinton said: “The Salvation Army welcomes any contact or inquiry from regulatory organisations and will continue to be completely open about our commercial relationships with SATCoL and KT. We will work closely with the FRSB on any concerns that may have been raised by the complainant.”