Is the discount retail model sustainable and ethical?

German textiles discounter KiK operates almost 3,700 stores in Europe and generates two billion euros in sales annually. Among the 20,000 articles in its range are the often-criticised 1-euro-t-shirts. Most of the production takes place in Bangladesh. Are a discount model, sustainability and fair production per se mutually exclusive? FashionUnited wanted to find out and talked to someone who should know: Ansgar Lohmann, head of KiK’s CSR department, spoke about KiK's business model, sourcing in Asia and sustainability innovations that will be introduced in the next two months.