Mulberry joins the national effort to manufacture PPE

British luxury brand Mulberry has become the latest fashion business to join the national effort in the fight against COVID-19 by producing PPE at its factory in Somerset.

Mulberry said it has begun producing much-needed, reusable hospital gowns in its Somerset factory for the University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust. It expects to supply 8,000 of the gowns in the coming weeks.

The company said it had sourced fluid-resistant, washable material which allows the gowns to be washed safely several times for non-surgical use. It is believed the company was approached by surgeons in Bristol while it was waiting to hear back from the Government about its offer of support, and is also in talks with other hospital trusts to see if it can support them.

Mulberry is also using its equipment in its factories to cut large volumes of fabric to pattern, so that local volunteer groups in Bristol can stitch scrubs together in the community.

Chief executive Thierry Andretta said the company was proud that Mulberry could "play our part in protecting local communities". It joins other major fashion brands in the UK in joining the national effort, including Burberry and Barbour.

This morning Burberry confirmed that it had so far donated 100,000 items of PPE to the NHS having converted its trench coat factory in Castleford and leveraging its supply chain to source and donate surgical masks. Barbour has been making PPE at its South Shields factory for North East NHS Trusts.

Others to have joined the effort to produce PPE include Patrick Grant's E Tautz, which is making scrubs, along with shirtmaker Turnbull & Asser, which has published details of its learnings on scrubs production on its website.