Vinnies Shops in towns, cities, and suburbs across NSW.

made by Vinnies Shops in 2021/22.

eligible containers processed at
Society Return & Earn depots

In accordance with the key aims of this Strategic Priority in our Strategic Plan we will build a financial approach that makes us sustainable and able to invest to do more for the people we serve.

• Build a financial approach that makes us sustainable and able to invest to do more for the people we serve.
• Be entrepreneurial in our approach to raising funds to support our service delivery.
• Ensure that we have a sustainable financial base to support and sustain our mission.
• Create an innovative social, retail, and commercial strategy which promotes environmental sustainability and strengthens income generation to support our mission.
• Develop a united and innovative fundraising culture that generates significant revenue to support our mission.

The Society’s commercial operations and fundraising generated $73.3 million in the 2021/22 financial year, this was affected by three and a half months of lockdown due to the COVID pandemic response.

Our most notable activities are our 227 Vinnies Shops across the state, the Container Deposit Scheme, Vinnies Textile Recycling, and a diverse fundraising portfolio. 

In addition, tens of millions of bottles, cans, and Tetra Paks are also being diverted from landfill every year through the container deposit scheme, which has the added benefits of helping raise money for the Society, supplying rebates to consumers, and reducing litter. 

Vinnies NSW operates 227 shops and eight distribution centres within its boundaries. The shops remain a critical supplier of funds for the St Vincent de Paul Society’s broader programs and services as well as a crucial supplier of material assistance for those experiencing disadvantage. Throughout the year new shops were opened at Coolah, Dubbo, Belmont North, and Taree. 

Throughout the 2021/22 financial year, our operations continued to experience significant disruption from the continued COVID pandemic and natural disasters. Following lockdowns for COVID, the shops had not fully reopened until October 2021. While the floods across NSW in early 2022, particularly in the Northern Rivers, resulted in significant disruption including the long-term closure of two major shops for repairs and refurbishment at Lismore and Mullumbimby. Our distribution centre in Goonellabah, located near Lismore, was critical in the disaster response as a base for first responders and a crucial supplier of logistics and access to direct assistance for local communities. 

Despite the disruption, the shops raised $52.956 million in sales revenue for the 2021/22 financial year. Its reduced net surplus of $13.341 million is wholly attributable to factors related to the pandemic and natural disasters.

The Retail and Logistics team continues to improve its internal systems and processes to deliver a highly relevant, vibrant, sustainable, and standardised offering for its customers across NSW. During the 2021/22 financial year, the network implemented a new point of sale system for its shops. The new point of sale system has drastically improved data collection and reporting capability, whilst delivering a user-friendly interface for the large volunteer workforce, and a better customer experience. 

Elsewhere, the teams sort thousands of kilos of donations each week to select suitable product for presentation in our retail locations. There has been a significant effort made to reduce textile waste to landfill by recycling or reuse as much product as possible through the retail network and other programs. This has resulted in a substantial reduction in waste as we continue to strive for zero textile waste to landfill – this includes our recently introduced re/CYCLE range. 

In Logistics, our distribution centres are continuing to standardise their operations with safety and best practice as the primary objectives. In transport, we have delivered significant efficiencies across the Metro Region, with the savings being reinvested into a more reliable and effective service in regional NSW. 

In 2022, we’re celebrating 100 years of Vinnies Shops. Read all about it in our anniversary magazine.

Cheryl Cole, store manager of the Bondi Vinnies Shop, first started with Vinnies three years ago after she took time off to have her little boy. After a lifetime of working for luxury fashion brands, she realised what she really wanted to do was work in the community and she hasn’t looked back since.

“It’s been the best job that I’ve ever had,” says Cheryl, “It’s so much fun and we’re helping people.”

Cheryl has brought over much of her expertise from the fashion world to better support the team at the Bondi Vinnies Shop, “I just bring everything I’ve learned, you know, in terms of the visual merchandising and the displays.”

“I know a lot of the designer brands and I know what a customer wants.”

Cheryl credits the community for bringing in great donations and having shoppers who believe in the power of buying pre-loved clothes, “We get amazing brands like Cirq, we’ve got Chloé shoes. It’s all really designer and in really good condition.”

“We have to work very quickly,” says Cheryl, “And we have to change the mannequins pretty much every day, because the outfits will sell, which is fantastic. The priority is that the mannequins are not left naked. We just have to work together as a team.

“We’ve got people who come to our shop maybe three or four times a day just to check what we’re putting out.”

The displays at the store always feature well-coordinated outfits which draw people in from the street. But what Cheryl prides herself on the most is the close-knit team.

“The team want to be here. We take a lot of pride in the displays, and it looks beautiful.”

The biggest motivation for Cheryl is that the funds raised by the shop will enable members at the St Vincent de Paul Society to help those in the community.

The Commercial Enterprise team has kept working towards its goals of providing economic benefit to the Society and environmental benefit for everyone in the 2021/22 financial year.

Our Container Deposit Scheme, Bag ‘o’ Rags, and Vinnies Textile Recycling continue to yield strong results, despite issues such as the ongoing pandemic.

Along with our Vinnies Shops, these operations are helping to divert increasing amounts of waste from landfill.

The Commercial Enterprise team delivered a net surplus of $3.5 million in the 2021/22 financial year.

Vinnies’ participation in the Container Deposit Scheme has continued to build on its successes, processing more than 95 million containers in the 2021/22 financial year. 

This resulted in raising more than $1.1 million for the Society and paying out $7.8 million in refunds to customers who brought their recyclable containers in. 

The Container Deposit Scheme works by adding a small extra deposit on top of the price of a beverage such as those in plastic and glass bottles and aluminium cans. These deposits are then refunded to consumers and to scheme partners such as the Society.

The Society operates Container Deposit Scheme sites in Cardiff, Dubbo, Penrith, South Nowra, Tweed Heads, Unanderra, and Wagga Wagga.