Ethical Brand Profile - Wombat

With a name like Wombat you'd expect this company to be at the niche end of the market - you may also expect them to be Australian but in fact they are based on Deeside, Cheshire, here in the UK.

Wombat products are available through Pier 32's promotional clothing directory - you can search on the Wombat brand to see what is available.

13 of their product lines are made from Fairtrade certified cotton, to if you are interested in the extra assurance that the Fairtrade Foundation certification can bring (it being probably the best known accreditation in the UK market) then Wombat would be a good choice. They sell a number of lines but those certified are:


Noosa Vest
Narrows Hoodie
Hervey Hoodie
Pinjarra Top
Maheno Top
Tambo Tee
Beech Hoodie
Airlie Top
Tumby Vest
Wallaroo Top
Birabee Vest
Tissaca Tee and
Kuwary Top

There are a range of products made from regularly sourced cotton. Here we look to Wombat's ethical policy to find out what is going on. It asks its suppliers to adhere to its own code of conduct and reserves "the right to run audits and spot checks by themselves, or by external parties, on suppliers’ premises without prior their knowledge to verify that they are behaving in an appropriate manner".

Wombat is not a big company (they were only established in 2004) so perhaps we have to be realistic about how far they can go in carrying out audits (and there is no mention on their site of any having actually happened) but to the extent that cotton is supplied by Fairtrade suppliers there will be some clear assurance to be gained.

Wombat also have a variety of good environmental practices in place here in the UK. As well as recycling Wombat is "working towards all suppliers complying with the requirements of the Azo dye directive and Nickel directives "

You can see their ethical policy here.

As always Pier 32 looks forward to receiving any further information that can help our assessment of any of the suppliers of the products we sell.