UK fashion brand Boohoo has been accused of labelling clothes made in Pakistan and other Asian countries as ‘Made in UK’.

In a report by BBC, it has been revealed that the retailer brand Boohoo has been found to have mislabelled items of clothing made in South Asia as indigenously manufactured.

In a Panorama investigation, it was shown that plain T-shirts and hoodies had their original labels removed at Boohoo’s flagship factory in Thurmaston Lane in Leicester, last year.

Thurmaston Lane opened two years ago and was promoted by the retailer as a UK manufacturing centre of excellence, offering end-to-end garment production in the UK.

The mislabelling took place at the factory, affecting up to one in 250 of Boohoo’s global supply of garments between January and October 2023.
The BBC estimates that this could amount to hundreds of thousands of wrongly labelled garments. However, the retailer would not provide precise figures.
Boohoo claims it was an isolated incident which had happened as “a result of human error”.

A company spokesperson said, “We have taken steps to ensure this does not happen again.”

The garments had been shipped from Pakistan and other countries in South Asia to Boohoo’s Leicester factory where they were printed on.

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Boohoo is considering closing its Leicester factory and relocating operations. However, the clothing retailer said plans to shut the site are not related to the findings of the Panorama investigation, adding that due to “significant investments” at its US distribution centres, it must take steps to ensure the brand is a “more efficient, productive and strengthened business”. It also suggested that the incorrect labels were down to a misinterpretation of the labelling rules.