{"id":44630,"date":"2025-09-26T13:01:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T13:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/44630\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T13:01:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T13:01:11","slug":"rte-drops-penneys-as-sponsor-of-late-late-toy-show-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/44630\/","title":{"rendered":"RT\u00c9 drops Penneys as sponsor of Late Late Toy Show \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

RT\u00c9<\/a> has dropped Penneys<\/a> as one of its main sponsors of The Late Late Show<\/a> over allegations regarding where it sources its cotton. <\/p>\n

A RT\u00c9 Investigates programme reported on Thursday that the cotton used in many Penneys garments came from companies that used Chinese<\/a> forced labour. <\/p>\n

The programme outlined how at least 15 Bangladeshi<\/a> factories that imported hundreds of tons of cotton fabric in 2024 from two companies linked to a Chinese forced labour programme are supplying some of Ireland\u2019s major clothing retailers. The retailers include Penneys, Dunnes Stores<\/a>, Marks & Spencer<\/a>, and Tesco<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The RT\u00c9 investigation by reporter Joe Galvin and producer\/director John Cunningham found that the two Chinese companies, the Esquel Group and Jiangsu Lianfa Textiles, have long-established operations in Xinjiang, a region that grows up to 30 per cent of the world\u2019s cotton and is home to a persecuted minority group called the Uyghurs<\/a>. <\/p>\n

RT\u00c9 confirmed it had raised the issue of the sourced cotton some months back. RT\u00c9 sourced branded Late Late Toy Show pyjamas from Penneys but put this year\u2019s order on hold because of the pending RT\u00c9 Investigates programme. <\/p>\n

In a statement RT\u00c9 said the partnership was \u201cpaused\u201d because the \u201cPenneys ordering deadline for the Late Late Toy Show pyjamas coincided with the initial conversations with RT\u00c9 Investigates\u201d.<\/p>\n

The partnership will be revisited for the 2026 RT\u00c9 Late Late Toy Show. <\/p>\n

RT\u00c9 added: \u201cRT\u00c9 conducts due diligence on all commercial partners and keeps all commercial partnerships under review. <\/p>\n

\u201cAny new information relating to possible work practices or ethical or environmental issues relating to commercial partners will be reviewed by RT\u00c9. Where necessary, assurances will be sought by RT\u00c9.\u201d<\/p>\n

The partnership ran for a decade and included donations by Penneys to the RT\u00c9 Toy Show Appeal. In 2024, the company donated \u20ac100,000.<\/p>\n

Penneys told RT\u00c9 Investigates that there is \u201cno suggestion of any link between the [Toy Show] range and the questions raised in the programme\u201d. <\/p>\n

Penneys said it was \u201cvery proud\u201d of the 10 years of the partnership, and that it \u201clooked forward to revisiting the partnership next year\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RT\u00c9 has dropped Penneys as one of its main sponsors of The Late Late Show over allegations regarding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[8179,72,114,28995,61,60,23061,33160,30789,6085,4013],"class_list":{"0":"post-44630","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-bangladesh","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-china","11":"tag-dunnes-stores","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-late-late-show","15":"tag-marks-spencer-ms","16":"tag-penneys","17":"tag-rte","18":"tag-tesco"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}