Wellingborough-based Salvation Army Trading Company Ltd (SATCoL), which operates the nationwide Salvation Army Clothing Collection Scheme, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year in what is set to be the most successful in the company's two-decade history.

SATCoL works from head office premises in Wellingborough as well as an additional site housing a processing station in nearby Kettering. It runs the UK's largest clothing collection scheme with more than 5,000 clothing banks and 120 charity shops throughout the UK and Republic of Ireland, as well as delivering over 400,000 door-to-door collection bags each week. 

SATCoL employs over 60 local people in its Wellingborough and Kettering bases, as well as over 330 people throughout the country to work in its charity shops or collect the donated clothing. The business is currently implementing an ambitious business growth strategy to drive expansion with an extra 500 banks and over 50 more charity shop openings planned for the 2011/12 financial year. This move should see in excess of an additional 100 jobs created over the next 12 months. 

Initial figures for the Clothing Collection Scheme show that the amount of clothing donated in the 2010/11 financial year was the highest ever at over 35,500 tonnes; up nearly 4.5 per cent on 2009/10. This is the latest increase in a pattern that has seen SATCoL consistently increase its tonneages year-on-year since 1999/2000, with the exception of 2005/6 when figures dropped by just 98 tonnes. 

SATCoL gift-aids profit to The Salvation Army to help fund its work in the UK and Republic of Ireland, and greater tonneages have meant greater donations to the charity. In the three years between 2007 and 2010, SATCoL gift-aided £16.2 million to The Salvation Army in comparison to around £5.8 million between 2004 and 2007. 

SATCoL was formed as a trading arm of The Salvation Army in the UK in 1991 to create jobs, benefit the environment and raise funds for The Salvation Army. Today, SATCoL incorporates seven divisions from its Wellingborough offices including the Clothing Collection Scheme, a retail division, SP&S which produces music, literature and uniforms for The Salvation Army, and British Bandsman - an international brass music magazine. It also encompasses World of Brass, which produces brass band recordings, World of Sound, which provides sound recording services, and R Smith and Company, which sells sheet music. 

"We're incredibly proud of our achievements over the past two decades and it's fantastic for us to be able to celebrate our 20th anniversary with what looks set to be a record year for our Clothing Collection Scheme," said Trevor Caffull, managing director. "It's one of the largest parts of our organisation and in the past two decades we've witnessed several fluctuations in the market that have tested us but we've come safely through the bad times as well as the good, demonstrating the strength of our business. We're in a great position to expand further and plans are firmly in place to maximise the potential of the company and the brand, enabling us to create more jobs and raise more money for The Salvation Army. We are very optimisitc about the next 20 years."