Cotton On is an Australian retail brand, famous for its fast-fashion clothing for men, women, children and teenagers. It runs almost 1200 stores in 12 countries and hires 17,000 workers in Australia and globally.
Cotton On also operates Cotton On Body, Cotton On Kids, Rubi Shoes, Typo, T-bar and Factory and owns Supré.
Cotton On was founded in 1991, with the first store being opened in Geelong, Australia. As of 2013, the Cotton On chain has over 1000 stores worldwide.As of 2011 the company employed around 5,500 people.
The company was established by Nigel Austin in Geelong, Australia, at the time it only sold women’s clothing. The original Cotton On offer has expanded to intimates, sleepwear and activewear with Cotton On Body, children’s fashion with Cotton On Kids, footwear with Rubi shoes, and gifts and stationery with Typo.
The design team in the company’s Australian office controls the steps of production from merchandise planning to establishing specifications, and production is outsourced to approximately 150 factories in Europe and Asia. These facilities are used for horizontal division of labor rather than being integrated.
After the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh in April 2013, Cotton On, along with the other main Australian retailers, became the focus of a campaign by Oxfam Australia to get the company to sign the Bangladesh Fire and Safety Accord.
In 2013, Cotton On acquired Australian fast-fashion brand Supré and planned to expand the brand internationally.
