For charity retailers · London, Kent & the South East
A charity shop textile collection service that shows you everything
Collections planned around your shops. Weights agreed at your door. Payment per kilo at the point of collection. And a live portal that records every visit, every kilo and every miss. Because a collector should sell you confidence, not just kilograms.
Charity retail runs on donated stock. The Charity Retail Association counts around 10,100 charity shops in the UK, and in 2024/25 they returned more than £300 million in profit to their parent charities. Behind those numbers sits a plain fact: someone has to collect the surplus, record honest weights and pay for it on time. That’s our whole job. And we think you should be able to see every part of it.
The service promise
What you can hold us to
- Collections planned around your shops
- Our transport manager plans each shop’s collections individually and agrees them with your team. Your stockroom gets cleared when it needs to be, not whenever a van happens to be passing.
- Weights agreed at your door
- If your shops weigh their bags, those are the weights we pay on. If not, our driver records an agreed weight with your team on the spot. Either way, the figure on the ticket is the figure you’re paid on. No revisions back at the yard.
- Paid per kilo, at collection
- We agree the rate in writing before we start. You’re paid at the point of collection, against the weight you saw recorded. And if you want to talk about the rate, raise it with your named contact.
- Next-working-day recovery
- If a visit fails, we come back the next working day. The miss and the recovery both go in your portal. Accountability, either way.
- A named account contact
- One person who knows your shops, answers the phone and owns the fix when something is off. No ticket queues, no switchboard roulette.
What we collect
More than clothing
Donated stock rarely arrives neatly sorted, and it shouldn’t have to leave that way either. Our crews take the mix your shops actually get:
- Garments: men’s, women’s and children’s
- Paired shoes
- Handbags & accessories
- Bric-a-brac
- Books
- Household linens
Not sure about a category? Ask your named contact before collection day. It’s usually easier for us to take a wider mix than for your volunteers to spend an afternoon separating it.
Every collection, accounted for
A textile collector that shows you everything
Most collectors hand you a monthly total and ask you to trust it. We built a client portal instead. Every visit is recorded as it happens (date, shop, weight and outcome) and rolls up into tonnage charts and shop-level tables your finance team can check line by line. So when a trustee asks how the textile contract is doing, the answer is a login, not a shrug.
The Charity Retail Association reports that more than 90% of donated clothing and books are reused or recycled. That’s a story worth telling, and your portal gives you the numbers to tell it with. And because we are TRA members and TRUST certified, the paperwork behind the numbers stands up to audit too.
Already using another collector?
Switching is simpler than you think
If missed collections, shrinking cheques or unanswered emails brought you here, you’re not alone. They’re the three reasons charities call us. We plan the handover around your notice period, run alongside your current collector until you’re confident, and your data is in the portal from the first visit.
Questions, answered
Charity shop collections: what retail teams ask us
How much do charity shops get per kilo of rag?
Rag prices follow the global textile market, so any figure quoted cold is only half the story. Here’s how we do it. We agree your rate per kilo in writing before the first collection. And you’re paid at the point of collection, against the weight recorded at your door. If you ever want to talk about the rate, raise it with your named contact. You’ll get a straight answer.
When and how do we get paid?
You’re paid per kilo on the day, at the collection. If your shops weigh their bags before we arrive, we pay on those weights. If not, our driver records an agreed weight for the load with your team. The figure goes into the driver’s handheld there and then, which works out exactly what your shop is owed. Your shop gets a paper receipt on the spot, and the collection shows up in your portal so head office can see what was picked up, where and when.
What happens if a collection is missed?
If we miss a planned visit, we come back the next working day. That’s a standing commitment, not a favour. Both the miss and the recovery go in your portal, dated and visible to your whole team. And if a visit fails for a shop-side reason, say the shop was closed or there was nothing to collect, we record that too and label it just as plainly.
What can you collect besides clothing?
Alongside clothes we take paired shoes, handbags and accessories, bric-a-brac, books and household linens. If your shops take in something outside those categories, ask your named contact before collection day. A broader mix is easy for us to take. Sorting it out is an afternoon your volunteers never get back.
Do we need to sort or bag donations a particular way?
Nothing fancy. Bagged and reasonably dry is all we ask. Our crews do the lifting, and grading happens at our facilities, not in your stockroom. If a shop has tight storage or awkward access, tell us. We’d rather agree a routine that suits the building than force one rule on every shop.
How do we switch from our current collector without a service gap?
We plan the handover around your notice period, so your Sait collections start before the old arrangement ends and stockrooms never back up. Many charities run both services side by side for a few weeks and compare the tickets before committing. And your portal is live from the first collection, so you can judge us on the record, not on promises.
What compliance paperwork do you provide?
Everything your trustees and auditors will want: our waste carrier registration, transfer paperwork covering your duty of care under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, and proof of our Textile Recycling Association membership and TRUST certification. Ask for a compliance pack and it arrives as one bundle, ready for audit, before the first collection rather than after the first query.
Do we get access to the live portal, and what does it show?
Yes. The portal comes as standard for every client. It records each visit as it happens: date, shop, weight and outcome, including misses and their recoveries. Those records roll up into tonnage charts, shop-level tables and a coverage map. And you can try an interactive demo, built on fictional data, before you ever speak to us.
Which areas do you cover?
Our rounds cover London, Kent and the wider South East from our depot in Queenborough. Near that footprint but not sure? Book a collections review. If a postcode is on our rounds we’ll confirm it the same week. And if it’s not, we’ll tell you straight rather than string you along.
Ready to see what accountable collections look like?
A collections review is a conversation, not a commitment: your shops, your current arrangement, and the questions your trustees keep asking.