Major fashion brand signs up as Circulose’s first ‘scaling partner’
Specialist in recycling cellulosic textile waste Circulose has partnered with fashion retail group Mango. The Stockholm-based waste-to-material developer said Mango was the first “scaling partner” it has signed up since its restart under new ownership in June 2024.
It said Mango’s involvement would help it accelerate “the adoption of circular materials in the global fashion industry”. As part of the partnership, Mango is committing to shifting “a meaningful share” of its use of manmade cellulosic fibres to fibres made by Circulose from textile waste.
As a result of this, Circulose has indicated that it could restart production of its material at a factory that Renewcell set up near Sundsvall, 400 kilometres north of Stockholm.
Renewcell launched in 2019 and began production at the site, a former paper mill, in 2022. It used the name Circulose for the material it made from recycled textiles.
However, in February 2024, Renewcell announced that it was filing for bankruptcy and, in June 2024, investment firm Altor took ownership of Renewcell’s assets and relaunched the company under the Circulose name.
Circulose’s director of business development, Dr Anna Sammarco, has confirmed to sportstextiles that the factory was one of the assets that Altor acquired. She said the company was working with brands to secure an increase in demand and was hopeful of being able to start production again next year.
Chief executive, Jonatan Janmark, said he was proud that a “forward-thinking brand” such as Mango, with “high ambitions in circularity” had come on board. He said a strong commitment from Mango would bring the restart of production at the Sundsvall facility “one step closer”. He also said it set a powerful example for the industry and could inspire other brands to follow its lead.
For his part, Mango’s sourcing director, Andrés Fernández, said the Barcelona-based fashion brand aimed to be using only “fibres with lower environmental impact” by 2030.
