C&A Boosts its Offering With its First GOTS Labeled Baby Collection

DÜSSELDORF, Germany, March 16, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

C&A Europe has launched a new baby collection that is certified to the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), reinforcing the company's commitment to sustainability. The collection, the company's first promoted as GOTS compliant, extends C&A's offering of more sustainable products. The new range is available at selected European C&A stores and online.

The GOTS processing standard for organic fibers defines internationally accepted requirements that include not only ecological, social and quality criteria along the entire supply chain, but also the assessment and residue testing of chemical inputs. As C&A is always working to uncover more sustainable options of sourcing materials, creating a GOTS certified range for babies was an obvious choice.

Thorsten Rolfes, Head Corporate Communication Europe, explains: "We are committed to working in accordance with high ethical and sustainability standards as fundamental principles of our business. Therefore, it is very important to us to ensure the safety and chemical performance of our products for our customers and the environment. We will continue to expand our ambition and offerings and will work to make the GOTS seal more visible."

Committed to taking certified "Bio Cotton" mainstream 

Under the "Bio Cotton" seal, 80 percent of textiles are certified to the Organic Content Standard (OCS) and 20 percent to the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS). The new offering for babies is the first C&A collection that visibly displays the GOTS certification.

C&A has been using organic cotton since 2004. The C&A "Bio Cotton" seal was introduced in 2007 to make our organic cotton textiles easily recognizable for customers. Today, "Bio Cotton" represents 38 percent of our total cotton sales, with other sustainable cotton equaling more than 40 percent of our cotton sales and more than 27 percent of our total collection. In 2014, we sold 130 million organic items.

While progress has been made, C&A's commitment to sustainable materials continues to advance. C&A is currently looking to source its entire cotton collection from sustainable production by the year 2020. To achieve this ambition, we invest in social and environmental programs to encourage the production of organic cotton. As our goal is to bring "Bio Cotton" to everyone, we sell our "Bio Cotton" products at the same price as conventional ones.

Acting to eliminate hazardous chemicals 

The strict GOTS requirements on chemical inputs include an approval process by a GOTS approved certifier. The integrity of GOTS certified products is ensured by the GOTS monitoring system, which includes onsite inspections and the certification of processors, manufacturers and traders by independent and specially accredited bodies, as well as transaction certifications for the related chain of custody.

This corresponds to C&A's 2020 goals, which include eliminating the discharge of hazardous chemicals throughout all supply chains. To achieve this goal, C&A has implemented Sustainable Chemicals Management and is an active member in the Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC) group.

For further information on Global Organic Textile Standard, please visit:
http://www.global-standard.org and on GOTS at C&A, please visit: http://www.canda.com

About C&A Europe

With more than 1,575 stores in 21 European countries and more than 35,000 employees, C&A Europe is one of the leading fashion retail businesses in Europe. C&A Europe welcomes and provides more than two million visitors per day with good quality fashions at affordable prices for their entire family. In addition to our European stores, C&A also has a presence in Brazil, Mexico and China.

For more information, see http://www.canda.com

Press contact:

C&A Europe
Wanheimer Straße 70
40468 Düsseldorf

Thorsten Rolfes
Head of Corporate Communications C&A Europe
Tel.: +49(0)211-9872 - 2749
Fax: +49(0)211-9872 - 4466
E-mail: thorsten.rolfes@canda.com