Monkhouse currently has a monopoly on branded school uniform items for many Manchester & Cheshire schools. With limited branches in the city, parents have no choice where to shop for these items as only one branch will sell items for any school. Additionally, the supplier's merchandise is quite expensive.

In-store stock is limited and online order lead time is 14 working days, meaning orders placed after the third week in the summer holidays aren’t being guaranteed to arrive before the start of the new year. 

This supplier has a history of delays in orders.Recent posts on social media saw parents sharing stories of entire online orders being delayed because of a single missing item - 7 or 8 weeks has been mentioned.

Parents currently have no other choice to purchase new uniform, as schools contribute to grant this supplier a monopoly on branded items. 

I encourage Manchester & Cheshire schools to rethink their award of contracts to this supplier, or at the very least to engage with a second supplier to encourage competition.