The hidden costs of choosing the wrong workwear provider 

Workwear can be essential to the operations of a business or, a tool to improve the professional aesthetics of a department. Whatever your requirements, there are some pitfalls within workwear procurement you need to be aware of. Commissioning the wrong supplier can have a major knock on the daily workings of your teams, if you follow our guide below it should mitigate a significant amount of the risk associated with procuring workwear.

CTS have gone through over 1,000 1-star reviews to showcase the common themes, how you can prevent these pitfalls and how CTS is different. Here are the top 3 pitfalls when you pick the wrong workwear partner.  

1. Delays with the order.  
   We’ve gone through hundreds of recently-wrote negative reviews with a single common theme. The order has been delayed and the answers they are getting from the supplier aren’t helping. There are some customers who have been told workwear will arrive at a certain date but to be told weeks later the item is out of stock, causing hefty delays. Always check their reviews (not just the 5-star ones) to ensure customers are not going ignored, the information they are providing customers is accurate and they are not selling products they know are out of stock. 
2. Logo and garment quality control 
   Receiving workwear on time is only half the battle, you need to open the package and ensure it’s the quality you’ve been sold. We’ve read about and spoken to customers who are not happy with the quality of the workmanship, either the logo is completely incorrect, in the wrong position or poor quality. We’ve also seen reviews of companies complaining that the garment has been damaged in production but still sent to them. The best steps to prevent this is to ensure you see a physical swatch of the logo before it goes into production, also ensure spelling and colours are correct in any digital proof. If your order does not match the digital proof then I’d speak to them about carrying out a remedial order. The garment should make its way to you in almost brand-new condition, if it has signs of damage you need to speak to your supplier as quickly as possible. Couriers can also cause damage to products, no matter how well they are packaged although they often have insurance covering the products. 
3. Refund and return issues 
   You can often grade a company by how well they deal in situations where things go wrong. Check their reviews to see if they have a good track record in giving quick refunds and free, fast returns. There are some supplier policies that won’t permit them to carry out a remedial order until they have garments back in their possession, failing to send items back could cause hefty delays in getting the correct order back to you.  

Workwear is unfortunately a dynamic purchase, especially when you are incorporating logos onto the garments. Picking the wrong supplier causes a huge amount of pressure, especially if you are working to deadlines. Customers can spend hours on the phone, in email exchanges and internal meetings, trying to resolve any issues that may come up from picking the wrong supplier. As you can see by the level of emotion and context around some of the negative reviews, it has the potential to cause real business issues.  

CTS fulfilment and operational staff have years of experience in the workwear sector. We fully understand the untold damage of not being up front and honest about a potentially problematic order, having fulfilled orders for thousands of businesses. Having the experience e have serves us well, preventing problems before they arise and always doing right by the customer. 

How bundle deals take the hassle out of workwear procurement 

Bundle deals, not an offer you’d typically associated with workwear and uniforms, but they work incredibly well. Here we delve into the benefits of purchasing your uniform through our ready-made bundle deals – the benefits may surprise you.  

Cost savings.  

Bundles are usually compiled with great value lines in commonly purchased quantities. To amplify the value of the bundles there is often some subsidiary going on with the brand who manufacturers the products. This subsidising often provides customers with a fantastic cost saving, we’d encourage customers to do a side-by-side comparison of the bundle and individual cost. This will really showcase how commercially viable they are. We constantly hear feedback that it provides a gateway into kitting out a workforce on a tight budget.  

New or existing brands 

Bundles can also be a fantastic entry level to sampling a brand you wouldn’t normally purchase. Many customers will often make a brand assessment at the start of their workwear procurement and tend to stick with them for many years. The market moves rapidly in workwear, any negative elements to a garment are often whittled out and relaunched in quick succession. Entry level bundle deals are a fantastic way to explore another brand without a major financial commitment.  

Artwork is usually included 

Many bundle deals will often include free embellishment, this provides an additional cost saving. Bundles can often be compiled based on operational efficiencies (quantities to match ease-of-production for example), these efficiencies are often passed over to the customer in forms of further discount. As products have been vetted for the bundle deals and manually created, you can also have peace of mind that the ranges are suitable for adding your logo, text or designs.  

Can be wearer specific  

Operating in a workwear business we can identify the sector-specific requirements, which allows us to craft wearer specific bundles. The wearer deals can often host multiple product lines to give a complete look. There is also consideration given to procurement continuity, garment compatibility and value for money.  

Often built for the season 

Bundle deals often have a shelf life based on seasonality, selling t-shirt bundles in winter isn’t the best use of anyone’s time (albeit still a requirement for some businesses to have t-shirts in winter). This cycle of bundle deals often take away the pain points from staff complaining of workwear not being suitable for weather conditions. We see this every year, once there is a nip in the air in September to the warm months of June, there is a dynamic shift in procurement, we apply our experience to generate season, weather, and sector specific bundle deals.  

Finally, stock availability is often great.  

Bundles are often created with very resilient product lines, ensuring customers can benefit from a speedy turnaround time. When we compile core ranges within our bundle deals, you can be rest assured that there is often good stock availability for core sizes and colours.  

You should never confuse bundle deals with cheap lines, there can be some prestige brands within our bundle deals. The ranges are not based on the cheapest, but the ability to provide customers the very best value, the reason is through operational, subsidiary and availability savings.  

Artwork can also be very difficult to coordinate, with some lines being sold that are not suitable for certain types of applications. You can enjoy a huge range of bundles which are vetted for a particular production type, with tried, tested and long-lasting lines.  

If you have any questions around a bundle, or anything workwear related, please speak with the team today.  
 
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How to claim back tax for washing work uniform 

Employees are leaving cash on the table when it comes to their branded uniforms. As you’d expect, the below does not constitute tax advice, please speak to a financial advisor. 

Employees may be able to claim relief on their tax when it comes to the cost of: 

• If you are repairing or replacing small tools you need for your job. A couple of examples are electric drills or perhaps specialist scissors, any tool which is essential to your job but not substantial/large. 
• Here is the important part, if you clean, repair, or replace any specialist clothing, including uniform or perhaps safety boots.

Employees do not qualify for claiming relief on the initial cost of buying small tools or clothing for work, only relative to the two points above.  

Let’s explore the true explanation of what a ‘uniform’ is through the eyes of claiming tax relief. Uniforms are defined as a set of specialised clothing that’s recognisable as identifying someone as having a particular occupation. So, for example, a nurse or police uniform would be essential to clearly define their role, or customer facing shop staff.  

You must be careful to not confuse required uniforms to uniform guidelines, such as a bank or retail store requiring you to wear you own clothes but of a certain colour. An example would be if your employer asked you to always wear black trousers or a black skirt, this is not uniform which qualifies you for tax relief.  

You can claim tax relief if you are provided uniform from your employer and carry out washing of the uniform. If your employer provides a laundry service and you choose to not use it, then you would not qualify.  

There are only two professions that can claim for replacing shoes, socks, and underwear which are nurses and midwives.  

‘Everyday clothing’ that you wear for work does not constitute uniform and would not qualify for tax relief. You also cannot claim tax relief on garments which have already been reimbursed from your employer.  

What about PPE? 

You cannot claim tax relief for PPE, the reason why is your employer is required give you PPE free of charge or they should reimburse you the costs of required PPE. If you have purchased required PPE for your employer, for you to wear, you should speak with your employer on how to acquire reimbursement.  

How much can you claim? 

The easiest way to calculate this is for you to keep the receipts of the total amount you have spent. The other amount would depend on an agreed fixed amount, also known as a flat rate expense or flat rate deduction.  

Flat rate expenses allow you to claim tax relief for a standard amount each tax year. The amount you can claim does depend on the job and the industry you work in. When you create a flat rate claim you do not need to keep a record of what you have spent throughout the financial year.  

The total amount you get back will likely depend on the tax rate you were at for that financial year, for example if you claim £60 and paid tax at a rate of 20%, you’ll get £12 back in tax relief.  

You can view the sector breakdown of agreed rates here.  

Looking to make a claim? 

If you are looking to make a claim, you can do it via post if you want to claim for a fixed expense (with receipts) or you can do it online. It’s important to spend some time to work out if you qualify, to ensure it’s not wasted time but to also ensure you are getting the tax relief you deserve.