Overseas v UK Production; it’s not just about price!

Its hard to work with manufacturers and CMT units…actually it can be a nightmare. You immediately feel disadvantaged because the balance of power is very much with the production unit and without a good production unit you don’t have a collection.

Many designers are under the impression that it’s easier and cheaper to source abroad…it may be cheaper on a price per unit basis but in the long run all designers need to weigh up the facts before they turn their backs on manufacturing in the UK. I talk from experience here!

When I had my label Retro I was paying UK factories around £3.50 for a blouse/top. It had high work content but I also had quantities of anywhere between 500  to 3,500 units per style. Obviously the bigger the quantity the better the per unit price.

I then came across an agent “Barry” who said he could provide the same garment for 80p in Lithuania. I thought that my boat had come in and I would retire within 3 years! Barry explained that he would act as my QC, liaision link with the factory and would visit the factory a minimum of three times per order i.e. before the order commences (pre-production meeting), conduct an in-work-check (as garments are merrily going down the line) and then a final garment inspection which is normally a 10% random check of the finished garments all hanging with correct labels, bagged, trimmed etc.

I flew over to Lithuania and saw the factory, took pictures, spoke to management there, spoke to the women on the machine lines;  I did all the “right things” to make sure that the order would be processed smoothly. What was the result?

I had the worst nightmare of my life and never produced overseas again.

When the order arrived I did the same 10% check before it went to be delivered. I found dirty garments and garments with the wrong swing tickets. I was gutted. I had to send all the garments into a processor as I did not have any space myself for an inspection. I had to pay £1.50 per garment to have an inspection. I then had to pay a further £.75 a garment to have the garment tags removed and replaced. Then I had to pay for garments to be cleaned. I was late on the delivery of the order as well and had to incur a 10% cost price reduction. Then the garments went in and sold well but because they were late there was insufficient buying season left to sell all the stock. This reduced my sale through rate, stock turn, and I went from being a well respected supplier to a “problem” supplier and orders for the following season were reduced until I could prove myself again!   

I never went abroad again for production. It took time to build up my reputation again but I went back to the UK units, humbly, and started to build up my name.

There are hidden costs for dealing with overseas suppliers such as travel, accommodation, post and packaging and of course there is a communication barrier. Today most reputable CMT and production units have email but there is always the problem that emails can be misconstrued and words do get lost in translation as we all know.

When larger order are placed too there is always the risk of lack of flexibility. We once supplied Miss Selfridge with a cotton pirates shirt. It had a very high work content and it was sealed, approved, fabric tested – everything was done according to the book. For this particular order we had the garment produced in Cairo, Egypt, to take advantage of the beautiful combed cotton produced there.

A few weeks before the garment was about to be delivered we had a call from the buyer. She informed us that she wanted to do a style change…I was totally floored! The garment had been sealed and was literally flying in for delivery. As I put the phone down I knew that Miss Selfridge would find a way of cancelling that pirates blouse order. It wasn’t late, it  was correct to size spec, it was beautifully made but I knew it would be cancelled because the style just did not fit. Sure enough when the garment was being QC inspected by Miss Selfrdige at their warehouse they found the smallest of non critical faults to cancel the order e.g. inconsistent size of stitching…11 per inch some had 14…(no customer would have spotted this), three had dirty marks (out of 500!), marginal discrepancies with size spec (e.g. fullness in sleeve head) – all comments were not crtical but the truth is that the style had passed its sell by date and it was cancelled.

If I had worked in the UK on this order the fabric may not have been cut when the first call came in alerting me to a problem.

There are benefits and there are short falls too with dealing with overseas factories and price is only one consideration to review. Nothing is simple either in the UK or overseas with production but remember flexibility, communication, visiting the unit and having a unit on your doorstep has many advantages!  

Jennifer Holloway