THE OPERATIONAL EDGE BY CTR
Welcome ZOA Group
Operational Edge is CTR’s take on downstream performance - clear insights on margin recovery, brand-safe redistribution and zero-to-landfill practice. Expect trend analysis, benchmarks and “what’s possible” examples from retail, supermarkets and wholesale that help you brief stakeholders, shape strategy and move faster with confidence.
Circular Commerce Meets Mainstream Retail
The UK’s circular retail economy has taken another major step forward with the continued expansion and formal launch of CTR's latest development, Zoa Group - the fast-growing business behind the exciting fashion rental pioneer Hirestreet, Thrift+ and Wowzer.
Zoa Group’s rise comes at a time when retailers and consumers alike are increasingly seeking alternatives to traditional ownership models. Through the brand Hirestreet, the group has already established itself as one of the UK’s most recognised fashion rental operators, partnering with major retailers and brands while making fashion rental accessible to mainstream consumers.
Industry attention accelerated following high-profile collaborations with brands including ASOS, Karen Millen, Nobody's Child, and French Connection, with Zoa’s technology and operational platform enabling retailers to integrate rental directly into their customer offering via the Hirestreet site.
CTR Group’s infrastructure supports the movement, inspection, grading, cleaning, repair, redistribution, and responsible end-of-life management of products flowing through the Zoa ecosystem. The partnership combines fashion technology with industrial-scale circular logistics — something increasingly critical as retailers face mounting ESG expectations, waste regulations, and consumer pressure around sustainability.
Zoa’s model allows consumers to rent fashion from leading brands or purchase pre-loved items through Thrift+, while CTR Group manages the physical systems required to keep products circulating efficiently through rental, resale, and recovery channels. According to circular economy researchers, Zoa’s platform was specifically developed to address the lack of infrastructure preventing brands from launching scalable rental services.
The expansion of brands including Thrift and Wowzer signals a broader ambition beyond rental alone — creating a connected circular ecosystem spanning fashion access, recommerce, resale, and sustainable fulfilment.CTR Group’s existing capabilities in redistribution, reverse logistics, and material recovery place it in a strong position to support that transition across multiple retail sectors, not just fashion. The Zoa Group launch also reflects a wider shift in retail thinking: ownership is no longer the only model. Access, reuse, recovery, and intelligent logistics are becoming commercially viable at scale — provided the infrastructure exists to support them. And increasingly, that infrastructure is what will separate circular retail concepts that remain niche from those capable of reshaping the mainstream market.
