Branded Workwear Shredding Helps Halt Corporate Identity Theft

When you’ve invested so much time, money and effort in building your brand, you won’t want anyone stealing your business name, much less have your company linked to unlawful activity. However, every time one of your employees disposes of or loses a piece of custom workwear, carrying your business details and logo, your company branded workwear can be worn by unauthorised persons.

Branded workwear comes in all shapes and sizes - flame retardant coveralls, hi vis PPE and Arc workwear are specifically engineered to mitigate the damage of an electrical explosion, all of which can have logo's attached.  As with all uniforms, workers are well briefed on how they should behave when wearing their employer’s colours. On some occasions, however, company branded clothing can get into the wrong hands, possibly resulting in corporate identity theft. This is why it’s so important to ensure secure destruction of redundant or outdated company branded clothing via a secure method, such as shredding.

What is corporate identity theft?

You and your staff might think it’s generous to donate branded workwear to charity or people in need but this can lead to inappropriate usage, unintentionally or otherwise, which will give your business a bad name. 

Unfortunately, there are also instances where respected companies are targeted for their work uniform. Crooks will gain the confidence of genuine staff members to get access to their custom workwear or steal company branded workwear to wear while getting the trust of vulnerable people who they then commit a crime against.

More sophisticated criminals will use personalised workwear along with other illegally acquired identification to open credit accounts. These types of offenders are often under the impression that corporate identity theft is a victimless crime. They forget that business insurance claims have a knock-on effect on premiums and credit limits which could leave your business out of pocket.

What businesses need a uniform destruction service?

You may be surprised by how many different business types would need a uniform destruction service. For example:

Service-oriented industries

Businesses in service-oriented industries, such as hospitality, healthcare, and security, often provide uniforms to their employees. Ensuring the secure disposal of these uniforms is vital to prevent unauthorised individuals from exploiting them to gain access to restricted areas or impersonate staff members.

Retailers

Retailers with a recognisable brand image often have staff uniforms. A uniform destruction service becomes essential for these businesses to protect their brand identity, prevent counterfeiting, and maintain the trust of their customers.

Corporate enterprises

Large corporations with a distinct corporate identity also benefit from uniform destruction services. Safeguarding their branded workwear ensures that former employees cannot misuse the uniforms to gain access to company premises or sensitive information.

What types of uniforms should be destroyed?

Many businesses and organisations have different uniform types that may require destruction if they become damaged, spoiled, or outdated. Some items recommended for uniform destruction include:

Branded uniforms

Any uniform displaying the company's logo, name, or other distinctive branding elements should be considered for destruction. This prevents the misuse of these branded items for fraudulent purposes.

Security uniforms

Uniforms worn by security personnel are particularly sensitive. Destruction of these uniforms is crucial to prevent unauthorized individuals from posing as security staff, compromising the safety and security of the premises.

Customised workwear

Industries with customised uniforms, such as those with employee names or specific job titles, should opt for uniform destruction services. This ensures that personalised information is not misused by individuals with malicious intent.

How the service works

Our trusted and convenient uniform destruction service simplifies the process of safeguarding your brand image from potential fraud. The uniform destruction process is designed to be efficient and cost-effective, eliminating the need for additional collectors and transportation.

We start by laundering and repairing your workwear, ensuring it reaches the end of its life in optimal condition. When a garment is ready for disposal, you simply attach a red tag and place it in a soiled garment bag for the next service. During collection, the item is scanned to remove it from our database, and after laundering, it undergoes a secure shredding and disposal process.

Our comprehensive services cover a range of technical workwear, including specialised gear like high visibility, flame retardancy, and arc flash protection industrial PPE. To provide you with a cost-effective quote, we conduct a survey to profile your protection requirements based on working roles, site specifications, wearer needs, and the number of employees, ensuring a tailored and detailed price proposal. With our streamlined uniform destruction service, your business operations can run smoothly while maintaining the highest standards of security. 

Secure uniform laundry service and shredding

As the UK’s leading commercial laundry service provider, phs Besafe can securely manage the custom workwear that you entrust to our care. We launder 1.2 million pieces of unbranded as well as branded workwear annually and have over 850,000 garments in circulation at any one time, so our routines are well-practised to avoid risk of corporate identity theft.

We can supply secure lockers or collections bins so that work uniform isn’t easily misplaced. Your company branded clothing is collected for laundering by our vetted operatives and returned to lockers or agreed secure location after being effectively cleaned with phs Besafe’s cutting-edge commercial laundry process. 

At the end of the useful life of your business’ custom workwear or when an employee leaves your firm, our uniform destruction service is there to protect your brand and image. We’ll collect work uniform tagged for shredding as part of the usual uniform laundry service.

Our personalised workwear shredding service can handle all custom clothing, including specialist workwear and PPE clothing, such as hi vis, flame retardant, fire retardant and arc flash protection garments. We’ll also provide you with the relevant certification as proof that your company branded clothing has been disposed of as promised.  In addition, when we shred your disposed of garments we make sure as much of it as possible gets recycled into other uses.

By using one supplier to handle your branded workwear for laundering, repairs and destruction via shredding, you’ll be minimising the risk of corporate identity theft as well as reducing the number of vehicles visiting your site(s) and the associated carbon footprint.

To ensure that you aren’t putting your business at risk of corporate identity theft via the use of branded workwear, talk to phs Besafe.