London (AFP)

Accused of having recourse to suppliers with quasi-slavery practices and of having helped to spread the new coronavirus, the British clothing group Boohoo finds itself in turmoil, dropped by its customers and investors.

The workers' rights association Labor Behind the Label denounced in a scathing report illegal working conditions and wage levels in the Leicester area where the presence of foci of infection forced the city of central 'England to reconfigure itself.

City renowned for the diversity of its population, Leicester has a thousand textile workshops. The report particularly pinpoints Booho, a company founded in the heart of the historic textile district of Manchester in 2006 by Mahmud Kamani and Carol Kane. Specializing in ephemeral and inexpensive "fast fashion", geared towards young people, it now includes several brands distributed internationally for annual sales of over a billion pounds.

"How can Boohoo boast a 44% growth in the first quarter (...) despite a pandemic? Workers denounce violations of confinement, frauds in government aid for short-time working, and modern slavery in the supply chain, "the NGO tweeted on July 1.

Sunday Times article reports journalist who masqueraded as a worker and worked two days at the Jaswal Fashions factory in Leicester was promised wages of £ 3.50 an hour while the minimum wage for an adult over 25 is £ 8.72 in the UK.

As of Monday, the action has stung, and it has already lost 43% in less than three sessions.

The company said it was "horrified" by these allegations and claimed to ignore everything about these practices, promising an investigation for which it hired a renowned quality control expert.

- "School case" -

The group also says it found "inaccuracies" in Sunday's article: Jaswal "was never a supplier to the company" and is no longer in operation, its premises being occupied by other manufacturers, says he, trying to find out how his products ended up in these premises. "Our internal investigations have found no evidence of suppliers paying workers 3.50 pounds an hour," he said.

Boohoo said however that he had found "other points where the suppliers did not respect (his) ethical charters and interrupted his relationship with them".

"The market is not convinced" by Boohoo's justifications, notes Russ Mold, analyst at broker AJ Bell, who argues that "a review of its supply chain should have been done a long time ago".

The accusations of bad practices at its suppliers and the press articles denouncing them date back to 2017.

The British distributors Next, Asos - also sometimes pinned down for their warehouse practices - or the German Zalando announced at least temporarily boycotting Boohoo's products, just like TV stars like Vas J Morgan.

"Boohoo is a textbook case of poor ethical practice," says Michael Hewson, analyst at CMC Markets, noting that it invites us to "think about the nature of + fast fashion + and what lies behind the low prices and the buying clothes, wearing them once and throwing them away, which is not very ethical. "

The analyst is also ironic about the double-edged sword of "social networks which can build a brand very quickly with the help of influencers who exhibit the products of a company, but can destroy it as quickly".

Labor Behind the Label argues that "the modern slavery revealed in the Boohoo supply chain is not unique in the clothing sector", denouncing in particular canceled and unpaid orders with the excuse of the virus, which affect employees.

Politicians get involved, like parliamentarian Darren Jones who ruled on Twitter that "Boohoo has no excuses" because its "administrators are obliged by law to ensure that suppliers do not exploit workers "and recalled that its board of directors had signed its" annual declaration against modern slavery ".

© 2020 AFP