Welcome to GNAAS Trading Company Ltd

Our business was established by the Great North Air Ambulance Service and is committed to giving 100 per cent of its profits to the charity. We have grown to become the charity’s biggest single donor.

Recycling is our passion. We collect unwanted goods from Berwick in the North, to York in the South, from Whitby in the East to Whitehaven in the West. Our fleet of vehicles is 23 strong, staffed by 54 employees, and based at our two sites at Newton Aycliffe Business Park in County Durham and Skirsgill Business Park in Penrith, Cumbria.

While door to door clothing collections are the main source of our income, we also collect recyclable materials from businesses. Collections include card, paper, plastics, mobile phones and used ink/ toner cartridges. We also run a paper shredding service and have recently opened a discount shop at our Newton Aycliffe site which sells high street goods at up to half price.

For more information about any of our services, and how we can help turn your waste into life-saving donations, please have a look around our website.

About Us

To the general public, it is simply a case of filling the bag with clothes and leaving it on the doorstep for collection. But behind the scenes, there is a lot more going on at the Great North Air Ambulance Service’s Trading Company.

Formed in 2001 as a means of channelling funds into the charity, the Trading Company really came to life in 2004 when it took on a business operation of its own in the form of clothing collections. From the beginning, 100 per cent of its profits have been donated to the Great North Air Ambulance Service, the charity which operates two air ambulance helicopters across the North-East, North Yorkshire and Cumbria.

The clothing collections were initially carried out by an agency, which would distribute the bags throughout the helicopters’ coverage area, and then later collect them. The agency would then sell the donated clothes and give a donation out of its profits to the charity.

But it was clear from the amount of clothing being donated that the agency’s financial contributions were not reflecting the support of the public. It was decided that the Trading Company would launch its own clothing collections. This meant organising a fleet of vehicles and collection routes, as well as a buyer for all the collected items. It was a big undertaking, but if successful the Trading Company would be able to maximise the profit from donations and would therefore increase its donations to the charity.

Through no little amount of hard work, the new system did turn out to be a success. A staff of about fifty are now involved in the day to day running of the Trading Company, which operates out of its base at Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, and at Penrith, Cumbria.

But clothing is not all the Trading Company is responsible for. It recycles printer cartridges and mobile phones, and operates office collections of waste paper and documents for shredding. There is a shop at the Newton Aycliffe where returned and end of line toys, furniture, camping and other ranges are bought in to be sold at discount rates. Having opened in Autumn 2010, the shop is already proving to be a huge success, taking up evermore floor space and welcoming shoppers from all across the Great North Air Ambulance’s coverage area.

The Trading Company also plays an important environmental role. It diverts goods from landfill, and gives old clothing a new lease of life. Used paper is recycled and printer cartridges are refilled and resold, cutting the amount of waste. But the bottom line has to be that by supporting the Trading Company, members of the public are playing a crucial role in keeping the helicopters of the Great North Air Ambulance Service in the sky. Last financial year alone, the Trading Company donated about £600,000 to the charity, making it the biggest single donor and allowing it to continue its lifesaving work throughout the region.