A local company beloved by royals and fashionistas alike will limit production of its iconic product in order to trial a new ‘no growth’ business model.
Hiut Denim in Cardigan has clad the bottom half of Meghan Markle, celebrity chef René Redzeppi and the Arctic Monkeys to name but a few.
The company has launched a sustainable ‘no growth’ model where it will limit production to 10,011 pairs of jeans a year over an eleven year period.
It will use 50p from each pair of jeans sold to repay ‘believers’ who are each being asked to invest £50,000 in the scheme.
The ‘believers’ will be repaid over a ten-year period with the eleventh year used to pay interest on the loan. The loan will be repaid quarterly with the interest in the eleventh year ‘nominally above market rates’.
Hiut’s founders will take legal steps so that, of for any reason there is a default in the loan, the ‘believers’ would receive shares in the company.
The founders will take a nominal salary for the duration of the loan,- with no salary increase until the loan and its interest is repaid. They will not be eligible for any dividend until the loan is paid back, plus interest.
Hiut hopes that instead of growing production it will grow innovation and pioneer the new no growth business model.
It is anticipated that if annual production is limited to a set amount, the desire for the product will grow and a waiting list for the jeans will be established.
The pegged production and the establishment of a waiting list will mean that the company knows exactly what is expected of it year on year and can plan accordingly.
Each jean will be numbered and timestamped and will carry a number for the customer to see. Each year will be given a different colour so over time, people can find out what year, what week, what hour and who their jeans were made by.
There will be a countdown on the company’s website that will give the world a real-time countdown of production left for the year.
It is also hoped that limiting production will make room for innovation.
“In the future, the waitlist may be many years long,” said a spokesperson for the company. “If successful, the need to push demand is reduced. The time saved allows the team to turn their attention to innovation. The factory becomes a working test bed for unique ways to lower impact.
“Innovation is hard and fraught with failure. The upside is that when you find a new, better way that no one else has done, you lead the world.”
To progress the scheme, Hiut plans to hire a general manager to drive the business; a community manager to help tell Hiut’s story to the world and a product innovations manager to help the company lead the world in lowering impact.
Would be ‘believers’ need to contact Hiut by April 1 to express their interest and receive more details. The plan is that for the believers to be in place by May 1.
“True sustainability needs a new growth model. One not based on growth as we traditionally understand it,” said a spokesperson for Hiut.
“The mission is to find another way to do business that allows humans to stay living on planet earth.
“We accept that our customers will be few, but their influence can be huge.
“We aim to lead the no-growth brand movement, represent another way to do business and inspire the next generation of customers.
“The no-growth brand must become a movement that a small, passionate community wants, more than anything, to change how business is done on planet earth.
“From trying this way of doing business, we learn and then we lead.”
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