Executives from LEGO, Difuzed, RSPB, Rainbow Designs and Indochine among others headed to the Isle of Wight last month for an immersive session with circular supply chain specialist, Teemill. By Samantha Loveday.
The event – which took place on 25 June – was part of POC’s summer member days and also welcomed attendees from Buyerseye, Nosy, and Max Publishing, all keen to find out more about the sustainable print on demand supplier, which has built a platform which enables anyone to start a sustainable brand on a circular model from day one.
At the beginning of the day, attendees were asked what they were hoping to achieve from the visit, with some of the responses including ‘collaboration’, ‘understanding challenges’ and ‘meeting like-minded people and companies’.
Introducing Teemill, Tobias Penner, director of trading, explained the original idea behind the company was finding out how it could open source its supply chain and enable other brands to connect to it. “Rather than keeping the technology and that supply chain to ourselves, we wanted to help other brands – whether that be established players that were already manufacturing themselves or those which hadn’t touched merchandise before.
“The whole principle of it was making it as easy as possible for people to adopt a more sustainable product, so they can bring that product to market, and then we can grow the scale of circularity in the fashion industry and drive forward more change.”
The group toured Teemill’s pioneering facilities and got under the hood of its systems – from the sustainable blank tees and low-impact printing methods, to cost-efficient, closed-loop packaging and the innovative Remill operation, which recycles old tees into new ones.
From a licensing point of view, Teemill has a solid business with companies including BBC Studios (Bluey, BBC Earth, Gavin & Stacey) and Aardman (Wallace & Gromit), as well as RSPB. Notably, its store for Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is nominated in the Best Sustainable Licensed Product category at The Licensing Awards 2025. It was also victorious in the category back in 2020 for its collaboration with BBC Earth.
Robert Caulfield, senior business development, joined Teemill in 2023 and has a background of working with big name licences. He explained to the group: “I’d been involved in producing products, many in Asia, and sending them into UK retail with a very traditional 12-month lead time. What we’re trying to do at Teemill is open up our knowledge and the tools we’ve built to anyone who wants to use them. Our whole aim was, how can we let every brand and manufacturer/licensee launch and sell online without the usual friction?”
For example, Teemill’s cloud-based asset management for approvals means that not only can waste be eliminated – thanks to no physical samples going to waste – but the timeline can be brought a little bit closer and products can be created in minutes, not days.
Rupert Waters, licensing manager at RSPB, backs up just how important Teemill is to the charity: “We had been dying to get to Teemill and see the factory, as they are a really important partner for us and this provided the perfect opportunity and excuse to do so. We both had a great day. The presentations were great and detailed, and gave us both background and story we didn’t know as well as detail to fuel our thoughts.
“The factory tour was amazing and fascinating both at the same time as well, and I know Hayley [Willmington] was particularly happy to be back in that environment where you can get hands on with the product and processes.”
The day ended with attendees being asked what they had gained during the time spent with Teemill. This time, the word cloud created included the likes of ‘possibility’, ‘synergy’, ‘inspiration’, ‘ideas to take forward’ and ‘little changes mean a lot’. And when asked what follow up action they would like, all said ‘to keep conversations moving’.
