Business Day
RON DERBY
2012/05/25
For a country such as SA, with a stubbornly high unemployment rate, any advantage that could be in duced by boosting labour-intensive industries such as clothing and textile needs to be exploited
WANTED, Cosmopolitan, True Love and GQ magazines, carrying the latest trends from across the globe, may just have a greater use to SA than helping fashion novices like myself dress in a more appropriate manner. Keeping up with the times, or at the very least being not too behind them, may just be the salvation that our labour-intensive local clothing manufacturers need. (Even more than the very short-term gain of a weaker currency.)
In fact, SA’s fast-evolving fashion sense is weakening the case for importing goods from China because of the length of time it takes for the latest cardigan or shirt design to get to these shores. By the time it gets here — in, say, six to eight weeks — demand for this cut or that colour may have long waned, meaning the jersey may well stay on a shelf for much longer than planned before eventually being sold at a knock-down change-of-season sale. Not good for fashion retailers in this competitive space.
This is especially painful if the fashion buyers of retailers such as Woolworths and Truworths are as lacking in fashion judgment as I am. Reversing a bad decision can be damaging for a particular men’s or women’s line for an entire season because of the time it takes for new stock to arrive. Woolworths clothing has often been a victim, with rumours out there that the team has been changed quite often.
How does one circumvent this ? By bringing manufacturing of the garment much closer. If only for the reason that your reaction times are that much faster than your rival’s, hamstrung by shipping delays.
In SA it’s becoming evident that the China-over-local-factories story is not a foregone conclusion.
Yesterday, Mr Price said it planned to reduce dependence on goods it got from China in favour of Bangladesh, Cambodia, Vietnam, Mauritius and SA.
Last year, the Foschini Group, which consists of stores such as Markhams, changed its supply chain to include local manufacturers and has seen improvements in its results.
Advances in information technology now make it easier and much faster for retailers to know where a particular shirt or jersey is selling well. The faster the response, the better, and if it’s a four-week wait for a ship to dock at our ports, it’s an opportunity missed.
South African clothing manufacturers have to catch on to these developments and take advantage of other jurisdictions such as Lesotho and Mauritius. While the fashion-conscious Sandton shopper may not produce the volume of orders that China gets from SA overall, he/she may just breathe some life into the local industry.
Zara, the biggest clothing retailer in the world, based its initial success, in Spain, on having a state-of-the-art headquarters with designers, factories and distribution centres on site.
For a country such as SA, with a stubbornly high unemployment rate, any advantage that could be in duced by boosting labour-intensive industries such as clothing and textile needs to be exploited. This opportunity is much more useful for sustainable job creation than merely calling for a more beneficial exchange rate.
RON DERBY
2012/05/25
For a country such as SA, with a stubbornly high unemployment rate, any advantage that could be in duced by boosting labour-intensive industries such as clothing and textile needs to be exploited
WANTED, Cosmopolitan, True Love and GQ magazines, carrying the latest trends from across the globe, may just have a greater use to SA than helping fashion novices like myself dress in a more appropriate manner. Keeping up with the times, or at the very least being not too behind them, may just be the salvation that our labour-intensive local clothing manufacturers need. (Even more than the very short-term gain of a weaker currency.)
In fact, SA’s fast-evolving fashion sense is weakening the case for importing goods from China because of the length of time it takes for the latest cardigan or shirt design to get to these shores. By the time it gets here — in, say, six to eight weeks — demand for this cut or that colour may have long waned, meaning the jersey may well stay on a shelf for much longer than planned before eventually being sold at a knock-down change-of-season sale. Not good for fashion retailers in this competitive space.
This is especially painful if the fashion buyers of retailers such as Woolworths and Truworths are as lacking in fashion judgment as I am. Reversing a bad decision can be damaging for a particular men’s or women’s line for an entire season because of the time it takes for new stock to arrive. Woolworths clothing has often been a victim, with rumours out there that the team has been changed quite often.
How does one circumvent this ? By bringing manufacturing of the garment much closer. If only for the reason that your reaction times are that much faster than your rival’s, hamstrung by shipping delays.
In SA it’s becoming evident that the China-over-local-factories story is not a foregone conclusion.
Yesterday, Mr Price said it planned to reduce dependence on goods it got from China in favour of Bangladesh, Cambodia, Vietnam, Mauritius and SA.
Last year, the Foschini Group, which consists of stores such as Markhams, changed its supply chain to include local manufacturers and has seen improvements in its results.
Advances in information technology now make it easier and much faster for retailers to know where a particular shirt or jersey is selling well. The faster the response, the better, and if it’s a four-week wait for a ship to dock at our ports, it’s an opportunity missed.
South African clothing manufacturers have to catch on to these developments and take advantage of other jurisdictions such as Lesotho and Mauritius. While the fashion-conscious Sandton shopper may not produce the volume of orders that China gets from SA overall, he/she may just breathe some life into the local industry.
Zara, the biggest clothing retailer in the world, based its initial success, in Spain, on having a state-of-the-art headquarters with designers, factories and distribution centres on site.
For a country such as SA, with a stubbornly high unemployment rate, any advantage that could be in duced by boosting labour-intensive industries such as clothing and textile needs to be exploited. This opportunity is much more useful for sustainable job creation than merely calling for a more beneficial exchange rate.
No comments:
Post a Comment