From cotton to clothing

At Kappahl we give many people the opportunity to be well dressed. Throughout the process – from the idea to the final piece of clothing – there are two things most important to us. Our customers and a sustainable way of thinking.

Design – with inspiration from all over the world

Our trousers, as well as all of our other clothes and accessories, are created by our own designers.

The design studio at our head office is a vibrant place full of clothes, sketches and creative conversations, where we work on several seasons at the same time. In total, we design roughly 8,000 items per year.

Our designers follow trends from all over the world and are inspired by street fashion, film and art, always with the customer's needs and requests in mind. Our goal is to offer many different types of styles, sizes and shapes, so that our products suit all our many customers.

Our trousers should not only look great – they should fit well too. Our pattern cutters create perfect fits for each item of clothing so that they are comfortable to wear. It's called hidden design but our customers notice it straight away.

As early on as the design stage we are considering sustainability. For example our collection for the smallest, Newbie, is designed to last for a long time. With a timeless feel and a cohesive colour palette, the collection is ideal to reuse and pass down to siblings.

It's called hidden design but our customers notice it straight away.

Purchasing – quality at the right price

When the trousers have been sketched, our buyers make sure that the right fabric is purchased, that suitable buttons and details are selected and the garment is produced. This is also the part of the process when we decide where the trousers will be produced, and our buyers are in contact with about 180 different suppliers all around the world.

The buyers also decide how much the final item should cost and when it will be available in our stores.

Production – with carefully selected suppliers

The trousers are made by carefully selected suppliers mainly in Asia but also in Europe.

Our main production countries are China, Bangladesh, India and Turkey. We have our own offices in these locations with about 140 Kappahl employees who work as a link between our purchasing department and our suppliers.

It is important to us to be at the location in which our clothes are produced, both to support our suppliers and to oversee that our agreements are upheld.

We work very hard at making sure that our production has as little impact on the environment as possible – for example, by reducing our use of water and chemicals.

We also carry out regular checks with our suppliers to make sure that they are following our code of conduct regarding pay and workplace environment. In this way, we contribute to fair working conditions for everyone who works in our production chain.

We work very hard at making sure that our production has as little impact on the environment as possible – for example, by reducing our use of water and chemicals.

Logistics – 84 percent travels by boat

When the trousers are finished they are shipped out to our stores. 84 percent of our transport from Asia is by boat, for both economic and environmental reasons. (More about our sustainable work for transport.)

The clothing arrives at Gothenburg dock and our distribution center in Mölndal. All transport to stores is organised from here, and every year we take care of roughly 45 million items there.

The timing of distribution is key, so that the right item is in the right store at the right time. The stores are restocked with new items for our customers several times a week.

In store – easy to find your personal style

Every day, hundreds and thousands of people across Northern Europe visit a Kappahl store.

There are about 4,000 employees in total in our stores, who love to give the provide the best possible service to our customers. We will gladly help you find the right pair of trousers, and we can suggest tops and accessories to complete the look.

It should be easy and fun to shop and find your personal style. That is why it is important for us to be available where our customers are, whether they want to shop online in our Shop Online or in any of our roughly 400 stores in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Poland and the UK.

Our stores should be as climate-smart as possible. We use green electricity and are actively working to reduce our energy consumption, by using lightweight, recyclable store fittings for example.

We also mend hangers that break, rather than throwing them away. We currently mend and reuse over 180,000 hangers each year.

In your wardrobe – for a more sustainable fashion

Our sustainability work is not over once the trousers have left our stores.

Studies show that a significant part of clothing's environmental impact takes place at home, when the clothes are washed and dried. There is a lot that you as a customer can do to make the the clothes last longer, for both your sake and the sake of the environment.

Clothing being thrown away is one of the largest threats to the environment in our industry. To take care of clothes, textiles and shoes you no longer use, we collect textiles in our stores. What you leave with us will be given a new life by being reused or recycled.

This is how we take responsibility for the whole process – from cotton to trousers. And then back again.