John Lewis customers will be able to give their favourite leather jacket a new lease of life or have a cushion cover fixed, as part of a repairs partnership with Timpson Group, the business famed for offering ex-offenders a second chance.
The service, which will be trialled at five stores from Monday, is designed to encourage shoppers to pay to have items altered, repaired, cleaned or restored, rather than throwing them away and buying replacements.
Extending a garment’s life by nine months can reduce its carbon, waste and water footprints by up to 30%, according to Wrap, a charity that supports the circular economy.
The cheapest repair on offer at John Lewis will cost £10.95, for “minor” rips and tears, or fitting a new half-pocket. For £28.50, a broken zip on a cushion cover can be fixed. At the more expensive end, customers can pay £99.95 to have a handbag restored. Items from any brand can be fixed through the service.
The 16-week trial, at John Lewis’s Oxford, Liverpool, Cheadle, Milton Keynes and Welwyn branches, is a collaboration with Johnsons, the 200-year-old dry-cleaning company.
Johnsons is part of Timpson Group, which is known for its eponymous key-cutting and shoe-mending business and owns brands including the photo chain Snappy Snaps.
The group has a long record of employing former prison inmates, who make up more than 10% of its workforce, about 1,200 ex-offenders in total.
This led to its chief executive, James Timpson, being named Keir Starmer’s new minister for prisons shortly after Labour’s landslide election victory earlier this month.
John Lewis and Timpson highlighted the environmental benefit of mending clothes and household items rather than replacing them.
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Will Lankston, the managing director of Timpson Direct, said: “Alterations have always been one of the core parts of our business and we have been seeing this increase over the past few years as more customers are conscious about the environment and are wanting to repair and bring back to life some of their well-loved garments and accessories.”
John Lewis said the trial would show it which customers wanted to use the service and what they wanted from it, such as the type of garments most commonly brought in for repair.