A vintage and second-hand clothes store has won a prestigious eBay Business Award.

Go Thrift which is based in Haslingden now employs 15 staff including apprentices from Burnley college and was honoured with the ‘Sustainable Seller award 2021’. The awards were hosted by TV presenter and chef Gok Wan in Manchester.

The company was set up Sarah Dean two years ago and began with a team of just two. It is now run by Sarah and directors Sam Hunter, Carl Walker and Katie Walker.

Sarah said: “We have all sold vintage clothing individually in the past and knew each other through this. We decided to come together as a team as we knew we could each bring different strengths and we had visions of running this company on big scale.

“We currently have 55,000 items listed online, and our warehouse currently has 80,000 items in it. We list around 3000 new items per week. We started in a very small unit with a couple of thousand items.”

Lancashire Telegraph:

During lockdown the company’s sales soared with high street shops closed. Since lockdown ended there has been no let up and the company is looking to hire new staff to keep up with demand.

Sarah said: “We have not seen a drop in sales since the restrictions lifted which we were concerned about. Lockdown gave us the opportunity to win over new and now returning customers.

“We don't accept donations or anything like that. We source our items from the US and Europe and buy in tonnes at a time, which are delivered in large shipping containers”.

“All items we list are of a good quality used standard, and we always list in detail any defects that the item may have. Just because something has a small mark or hole, we do not turn it away.”

Lancashire Telegraph:

Ten small businesses from across the UK were crowned winners at the fifth annual eBay Business Awards. eBay received over 2,000 entries for the awards across all categories.

This was Go Thrift’s first award and Sarah is hoping it will help to create more awareness of recyclable clothing, “We are trying to promote a circular fashion economy, whereby all items of clothing deserve a second chance at life.

"Any items that we cannot retail due to the condition or being not genuine, are donated to either a homeless shelter, women’s refuge or to a textile recycling plant.”