An independent chairman should be a minimum demand in the fashion’s retailer’s reform efforts
Is everything now tickety-boo at Boohoo? Certainly there was no sign of a consumer boycott after last year’s revelations of shoddy practices in clothing factories in Leicester. Sales in the UK rose 40% in the last four months of 2020. The teenage customers did not rebel. Perhaps they were too distracted by TikTok to read the newspapers.
Boohoo can also boast about making “significant progress” on its “agenda for change” programme, its attempt to improve poor practices on pay and working conditions in its supply chain. The saintly Sir Brian Leveson is overseeing the operation; a new non-executive is chairing the audit committee; and a risk committee has been constituted. And 64 suppliers in the UK have been ditched, a number that illustrates the depth of problems that built up over the years.
