With a network of laboratories, both within and outside the UK, UKFT Associate Member Eurofins provides comprehensive quality, safety and sustainability solutions at every stage of the textile, leather and footwear supply chain.

On the sustainability side, they provide microplastic shedding quantification to help tackle the industry’s issues with microplastic pollution. Their supply chain mapping and vegan verification services add the supply chain transparency and traceability that consumers are increasingly seeking. Their organic cotton identification services are also designed to enhance and protect consumer confidence.

Be it REACH, California Proposition 65  or otherwise, it is crucial for buyers and suppliers to ensure that their products fulfil regulatory requirements. To that end, the Eurofins Softlines & Leather network provides a wide range of testing services.

When it comes to managing restricted substances during the manufacturing process and finished products respectively, their chemical testing service portfolio covers MRSL and RSL tests of yarns, fabrics, garments and leather articles on their compliance against regulations and brands’ in-house requirements.

They can also provide mechanical testing for tensile strength, tear strength and pilling among other things to applicable ISO standards to help brands determine product properties at different production stages, in different scenarios and uses.

Their experts also provide a wide range of regulatory and compliance services to help organisations get to grips with the regulatory compliance landscape. This includes fundamentals such as labelling and marking, technical compliance files and when it comes to chemical management, delivering the Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals Manufacturing Restricted Substances List (ZDHC MRSL) V2.0, Level 1, 2 and Level 3 conformance.

As one of the leading services providers, Eurofins Softlines & Leather understands that every business has a unique set of needs and the tailored services offered by their network of laboratories cater to this with a proactive approach to securing and monitoring all the steps of your supply chain.

From collection review, product concept assessment and regulatory support, all the way through to testing, training, product inspections or market surveillance control plans, they deliver professional and customised solutions.

Through the Eurofins Consumer Products Assurance (Eurofins CPA) network of companies, they also support the fashion industry with its inspection and auditing needs.

This includes offering a full suite of factory audit services, covering social, environmental, technical and security compliance and they are approved by various audit industry standards and audit associations, including the Association of Professional Social Compliance Auditors (APSCA), Sedex SMETA, Social & Labor Convergence Program (SLCP), Fast Forward, Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP) and the Initiative for Compliance and Sustainability (ICS).

On the environmental side, the Eurofins CPA network is approved by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) as a Higg FEM Verifier Body to support the industry in demonstrating achievements in environmental performance.

Brands can depend on them for product inspection and take advantage of their QA-QC programme specifically designed to help manage garment quality from point zero. They can leverage other inspection services also to examine goods on-site before they are shipped.

With their recent growth through the acquisition of Modern Testing Services/HSTTS, the team at Eurofins said they saw this as the perfect opportunity to join UKFT and be a part of the conversation, during a very uncertain time with the seismic regulatory changes and supply chain disruption of the past few years. They would also like to support the industry as it moves toward a more sustainable business model and the complexity and challenges that it brings.

With that said, the organisation has a number of existing resources that could benefit fellow UKFT members, including:

• The monthly Softlines & Leather bulletin, with the latest technical and regulatory updates and product recalls
• A range of articles on key industry topics
• On-demand and upcoming webinars on emerging fashion industry themes

They are also keen to hear what regulatory compliance challenges you might be facing at present and any future resources you would be interested in seeing.

Eurofins Softlines & Leather is looking forward to working alongside the UKFT team with future projects, so be sure to watch this space.

If you have any questions or queries, contact Textile-Leather@eurofins.com

Follow Eurofins on LinkedIn here for the latest updates.

Or check out their short videos to see what they can do for you Eurofins Softlines, Leather, Toys and Hardlines

VISIT THE EUROFINS WEBSITE

Eurofins is a UKFT associate member. Interested in UKFT membership? Find out more here.