Retail Week visited Baukjen headquarters in London and sat down with founder and chief executive Geoff van Sonsbeeck to discuss the brand’s progress to date, the importance of education when it comes to sustainability, and what is on the cards for the brand in 2025.
Co-founders Geoff van Sonsbeeck and Baukjen de Swaan Arons first founded sustainably-conscious maternity wear brand Isabella Oliver in 2003, which has since become the sister brand of the pair’s bigger brand Baukjen.
Launched in 2012, Baukjen celebrates “slow fashion” and put sustainability at its core long before it became cool to do so. Using “repsonsible practices” that prioritise environment, social and ethical implications, Baukjen’s price points range from vest tops priced at around £40 all the way up to leather and shearling coats priced at just under £1,300.
Despite the past two years for Baukjen involving battling with stock shortages, van Sonsbeeck is confident the business has regained its “significant momentum”. Having traded “stronger” in the week leading up to Black Friday, despite not offering consumers promotions, he emphasises the strength of Baukjen’s product offering to date.
While Baukjen was named the highest-scoring fashion small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) B Corp business in the world this year, van Sonsbeeck told Retail Week that he still doesn’t think people buy because of the brand’s ethics. With this in mind, we sat down to discuss the importance of education around sustainability, ambitious growth plans, and the challenges that lie ahead for the retail sector more broadly.
Talk to me about the journey of founding Baukjen
“We started with our maternity brand before launching Baukjen and the essence of both brands were always built on good ethics, but we didn’t know ESG as a principal and we didn’t know about B Corp then. It was however in our DNA to get that right.
“I started to learn about the stats that every second a truckload of garments is going into landfill or incineration and that’s when it hit us. We had a decision to make out of stopping the business altogether or finding a way to reinvent fashion full stop. We looked to find a way that is meeting the triple bottom line from a linear to a circular model where we learn and apply everything into how we can stick these pieces together in a way that is better for the planet, people and profits.
“It’s been a constant journey in learning what matters in sustainability and I often say you take two steps forwards and one step backwards. Every day you try and learn something new and you find your way past an obstacle to solve it.”
What are your thoughts on the Budget and how it is going to impact Baukjen and the sector more generally?
“I think it’s no news that the rates didn’t happen the way we wanted it and the Budget is going to be a killer for employment and national insurance thresholds particularly if you have a lot of lower-end employed people. I think that it will mean the bottom line is going to be inflationary and if the customer can’t cope with it then we either grab the discount tool, or we’ll have to adjust the top line and we will likely see salary increases which will be offset by cutting people or not hiring.
We know it’s going to have quite an impact on our bottom line but it will excite us to be even more efficient.
“For a wider context for retail it’s very tough when you’re running on slim margins, and customer service will also go down because there will be less people, and prices will go up but we don’t intend to increase prices.”
How important is it to educate shoppers on sustainability?
“I think it’s hugely important in the industry that we raise general levels of community, environmental and customer rethinking. Now we have a format [B Corp] which also brings very good governance. I’m convinced and I see it with companies that manage to get into the B Corp journey – they become better businesses even in terms of profitability.
“I hope we get to the position that it’s hardly needed anymore because it just becomes standard business for everyone. Anyone that thinks about it is already becoming a better business. There is a big difference between being a B Corp and being a great B Corp but I think customers are now, at last, recognising it. So kudos to the industry and kudos to B Corp, I’m very proud of it and we need more.
“With an eye to new regulation, even if they are not yet applicable in the UK, most retailers would be fooled if they don’t already think about adopting it. It’s a matter of time but it’s coming.
“Six or seven years ago, we launched our first digital barcode and we didn’t call it a product passport, we called it our QR traceability, but it was the same idea. I hope that one day it will be so engaging for customers that it becomes almost a completely different level of personalisation and that you are actually consciously aware of the farmer and where it came from.
“A lot of behaviour is shifting and customers are waking up to it. Regulation is falling into place slowly and I’m hopeful as to where it will be.”
What are your plans for 2025?
“Next year I’m very excited that as people wake up, they will see that fashion 2.0 [more sustainable way of operating] is much more possible, interesting and profitable.
“As a brand to date, we’ve learned that our product is right and we just want to do much more of it. We’ll be expanding our range, we are launching petite, and we have more categories coming. We’re looking at jewellery, accessories, lingerie and shoes but nothing is concrete yet.
“We know that we can push up the price in certain areas, which is quite exciting.
We’re not pushing prices generally, but we know we are trusted at different price points too.
“We’re very excited about what we can do online, more than we’ve done now, but also at retail opportunities nationally and particularly internationally. I have zero store experience but obviously it’s a no-brainer for us so 2025 is about significant expansion and how we can do this in a way to engage our customers in it.”
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