For years, Coats has had a robust approach to sustainability and 2019 saw progress made in the first year of its new strategy. Coats has set ambitious goals to deliver by 2022 as it continues pioneering toward a more sustainable future. Coats is the world’s leading industrial thread company. It enters 2020 as a lean and agile organisation, having delivered significant positive strategic change through 2019. This was a year of continued growth in profits and cash, despite a market backdrop which saw lower than normal growth in retail sales of apparel and footwear, and temporary softness in some of the industrial end-markets. In apparel and footwear, this meant taking a bigger market share by delivering high quality products with world class levels of speed, customer service and support. However growth was impacted by slower demand for zips and trims due to certain in-year fashion trends and conscious low margin product rationalization as well as the impact of tail market exits and other customer/product portfolio rationalisation actions. Coats is well placed to take advantage of the fast-paced and rapidly changing modern world by capturing the many opportunities. In Bangladesh Coats is the first company which offers garment factories recycled thread. The company uses plastic bottles to make chips, which are then converted into plastic threads.