Primark has signed a multiyear agreement to buy recycled polyester from textile-to-textile recycler Circ, with the material set to appear in the retailer's clothing from 2029. The deal is Primark's first multiyear offtake agreement with a textile-to-textile recycler. Financial terms and volumes were not disclosed.

For Circ, the commitment secures future demand as the company builds commercial-scale capacity. Its planned facility in Saint-Avold, northeastern France, is designed to process 70,000 metric tons of textile waste per year and expected to cost around $500 million, funded through a mix of equity and debt, with Circ also seeking grants and guarantees. Construction is due to complete by the end of 2028.

The Primark deal does not bank the plant on its own, Circ chief executive officer Peter Majeranowski noted. "The agreement does not finance the facility on its own, and Primark is not directly financing its construction. A project of this scale requires a broader package of mixed capital sources," he said.

The commercial significance runs through to Circ's financing case. "Primark's multiyear commitment to incorporate Circ Polyester into its products gives us commitment of future demand. That helps reduce market risk, strengthens the case with investors and financing partners, and allows the wider supply chain to plan for integration," Majeranowski said.

He added that lenders to first-of-a-kind infrastructure need confidence in sustained demand, not just the technology: "A long-term agreement with a global retailer like Primark committing to incorporate defined volumes of Circ Polyester into its collections turns broad market interest into a much more tangible demand signal and helps reduce the commercial risk and reinforce the foundational economics of the project."

Primark spent about 18 months evaluating textile-to-textile polyester providers before selecting Circ, a spokesperson said. Two factors drove the choice. "Circ's dual solution of recycling polycotton, one of the hardest to recycle and most abundant material blends available" was key, the spokesperson said, along with the location of the planned French plant. "We recognized not only could we source recycled textile polyester but also contribute to solving a problematic material."

Circ's technology separates polycotton into its component parts, recovering cellulose from cotton and PTA and MEG — the building blocks of polyester — from the polyester fraction. The process requires feedstock that meets defined technical specifications and has been properly sorted and prepared, a constraint that shapes the supplier's upstream agenda.

"The challenge is not a shortage of textile waste because there is plenty of polycotton available," Majeranowski said. "Our technology requires feedstock that meets defined specifications, so we are developing a diversified supply pipeline and working with partners on sorting, preparation, traceability and qualification."

Primark said scaling textile-to-textile recycling will depend on waste collection and sorting infrastructure — higher collection rates and automated sorting — as well as advanced recycling technology and policy measures including clear extended producer responsibility schemes and recycled-content requirements.

The deal adds a second strand to Primark's existing recycled-fiber work, which includes a partnership with supplier Recover. The retailer reported that 39 percent of clothing units sold in its most recent financial year contained recycled fibers, up from 32 percent the prior year, and it has committed to removing conventional materials from its clothes by 2030. Primark is also reviewing its Primark Cares strategy, launched in 2021, in light of changing regulation, technology and consumer expectations in Europe.

Majeranowski cautioned that recycling alone cannot offset the industry's wider environmental impact. "If clothing volumes and virgin material consumption continue to rise together, the benefits of recycling can be outweighed by the industry's increasing overall impact," he said, adding that the industry must address both the volume of resources it consumes and the material system behind its products.

Circ will be watching whether the Saint-Avold plant hits its end-2028 construction target, since Primark product integration from 2029 depends on that timeline holding.