Product quality and safety Delivering high standards

Our Quality, Assurance and Development teams in head offices, sourcing hubs, and at suppliers oversee every aspect of product safety and quality. They examine our goods to determine their physical, chemical, and mechanical properties as well as measurements and workmanship. For babies’ and children’s clothing, safety criteria receive specific attention. Product testing is carried out by C&A and in cooperation with external laboratories like SGS, Intertek, and Bureau Veritas, to ensure our collections meet the latest legal, chemical, and safety standards, to ensure our collections meet the latest legal, chemical, and safety standards. The team also helps our suppliers, factories, and colleagues understand safety risks and coordinates with legal bodies and industry associations.

Quality down to the last detail 
These inspections take place during and after production so we can determine whether the product matches our requirements. Workmanship, measurements, and safety checks must be passed before items are allowed into C&A stores.

Auditing of our production units 
These quality audits ensure that only appropriate production units that meet all our requirements are allowed to produce garments for C&A according to all our quality standards.

Product sample inspection 
Whether a certain product can be sold at C&A is determined after a sample of the item has been examined according to stringent criteria, such as workmanship and physical properties (resistance to tearing, shrinkage, colour fastness), chemicals, and various legal safety requirements (for example, small parts or restrictions on the use of cords that could pose a danger to babies or children). Once these and other criteria have been met, an item may be manufactured for C&A.

Quality and conformity inspection 
These inspections take place during and after production so we can determine whether the product matches our requirements. Workmanship, measurements, and safety checks must be passed before items are allowed into C&A stores.

Structured quality and due diligence checks 
To provide the greatest possible safety for our customers, C&A also performs random due diligence checks on products to ensure they meet our expectations.

Activating our restricted substance list 
To support the development of safe clothing with no hazardous chemicals present, we have implemented a restricted substances policy. We are also active members of   voluntary industry groups such as the Apparel & Footwear International RSL Management (AFIRM) Group and Cooperation Against Dangerous Substances in Shoes (CADS).

In addition, approximately 25% of our collections in Europe achieved the OEKO-TEX® Standard 100 rating, an independent testing and certification system for textile raw materials, components, and end products. This confirms that our fabrics, yarns, components, and trims have undergone a rigorous test for harmful chemicals.

Garment manufacturers apply poly-fluorinated compounds (PFCs) to garments to repel liquids and stains. However, research by organisations like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has indicated a link between PFCs and damage to human health and wildlife. Globally, we eliminated PFCs from all products as of 2015.

Towards zero discharge of hazardous chemicals 
The C&A Chemical Policy also contains the Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC) Manufacturing Restricted Substances List (MRSL), which focuses on the elimination of hazardous chemicals in the supply chain. To help ensure the chemicals used in making C&A products are safe for people and the planet, we are also implementing the ZDHC Roadmap to Zero framework. This includes applying the ‘clean factory’ approach, encouraging the elimination of hazardous chemicals across production for all brands, not just C&A’s production. C&A is a founding member of ZDHC, a coalition of 122 contributors with a shared commitment to zero discharge of hazardous chemicals in their supply chains.

Read our public commitment to ZDHC

Moving towards chrome-free leather 
We don’t use a lot of leather in our products. But when we do, we want to make sure it is produced responsibly. One way we do this is by striving to buy leather for our clothing that is chrome-free tanned.

Ban of Polyvinylchloride (PVC)
PVC is a plastic which may be used in, for example, prints or as synthetic leather. Due to its negative environmental profile, C&A has forbidden the use of PVC for all products.
 
Recalling potentially unsafe products
We had no product recalls across our retail markets or licensees in 2019.