Salvation Army clothing collection campaign

(L-R) Allan Brownridge of Harley-Davidson UK and Nick Morton of SATCoL

Harley-Davidson has joined forces with the Salvation Army Trading Company Ltd (SATCoL) to promote the charity’s clothing collection campaign, Spring Clothing Clear Out.

Thirty-one Harley-Davidson dealerships in the UK and Ireland will be supplied with a jointly branded ‘re:fill’ container, where customers, staff and passers-by will be able to leave their unwanted clothes for reuse.

SATCoL will pick up the donations and take them to their charity shops to be sold or given to those identified by local Salvation Army centres as being ‘most in need’. Profits made from sold items will be gift-aided to The Salvation Army.

The ‘re:fill’ containers are part of SATCoL’s ‘re’ campaign, which also includes reusable ‘re:bags’, ‘re:ward’ customer loyalty cards and the gift-aid scheme ‘re:gift’.

The Harley-Davidson-SATCoL partnership is the first company-wide scheme to use the containers.

Nick Morton, Head of Retail Operations at SATCoL, commented on the new partnership, saying: “We’re thrilled that such a well known brand has chosen us to partner its Spring Clothing Clear Out project. A number of our shops already operate successful local partnerships using the re:fill containers so the next step was to roll out the scheme on a national level.

"It’s very encouraging to work with companies that wish to help their customers and staff donate unwanted clothing in a responsible way – after all, textiles are the fastest growing household waste stream and can be very harmful to the environment when thrown in the bin.

“Whilst we’re hoping that customers and staff get into the spirit of the scheme and help us stock our large network of charity shops, we’re also excited about the awareness this scheme will raise, both about the fantastic work The Salvation Army does and the simple ways that large organisations can make a difference to their communities and the environment.”

Allan Brownridge, Brand Manager for Parts, Accessories and General Merchandise for Harley-Davidson UK added: “Harley-Davidson is very excited to be working with The Salvation Army and encouraging our owners to give something back. We thought The Salvation Army would be a great charity to partner with due to the great amount of work they do within the UK and how they put everything back into the community and give to those most in need through their social projects.

“We’re looking forward to the partnership and are looking forward to our dealerships generating lots of clothing for them! We see this partnership being the beginning of something great which will hopefully continue further than the Spring campaign.”

The Spring Clothing Clear Out campaign is due to run from February until the end of April in all Harley-Davidson dealerships in the UK and Ireland.

Profits made from sold clothes will help to fund the work the charity carries out in UK communities, including homelessness services, elderly care, professional addictions services, children and family services, and help at emergency incidents such as flooding.

Read more about Salvation Army charity shops.