Online fashion retailer Boohoo has unveiled plans for a massive new factory in Leicester - after cutting ties with dozens of suppliers in the city.
The company recently came under fire over concerns about poor working conditions and fears staff were being underpaid and overworked.
Now Boohoo's operations director Andrew Reaney revealed that the company has cut ties with 64 suppliers in the city in recent months.
But he reaffirmed that the business is committed to Leicester with plans to open its own manufacturing plants in the city, including a new factory in Thurmaston Lane.
Mr Reaney told the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee: "At this point, we have applied for planning permission.
"The factory itself will be huge. We are talking about potentially 60 machinists, which is equivalent to 85, 90 workers.
"That is 90 more jobs in Leicester, and we are going to move our own sourcing and ethical and technical compliance team into the same building as well.
"That is part of our commitment to Leicester and part of us wanting to demonstrate to the industry that this is what a model for best practice looks like" reports LeicestershireLive.
Mr Reaney also told MPs that work to improve conditions at the Leicester factories it used is underway.
He said: "We have undertaken 400 audits alone this year in Leicester, and have eight auditors on the ground, plus our team. I am on the ground every week in those factories with the team. All of the factory visits are unannounced."
Mahmud Kamani, chairman and founder of Boohoo, added: "We do business with these manufacturers on a very commercial basis, but we want to support them. We want to help them.
"It is very easy for us to take all of our production offshore, for us to move out of Leicester. We are still here - you see the headlines, but we are still here.
"Lots of people in the fashion industry have moved offshore, but we are here and sometimes it feels we are getting punished for it, just sometimes."
