UK clothing retailers support local production
In recent months, many UK clothing retailers have displayed an initiative to bring back manufacturing into the country and encouraging consumers to purchase UK-made products.
In the past 30-35 years, as costs of textile and clothing production began to rise, retailers started outsourcing their products from low-cost countries like China, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
NBrown which has brands like Jacamo, JD Williams and Simply Be in its portfolio, set the ball rolling when it invited potential suppliers in order to take its local production from the current one to five percent of overall sales.
The biggest advantage in localizing production that the retailers foresee is that they would be able to order smaller quantities. On the other hand, when outsourcing from other countries, they have to place orders for thousands of pieces.
The second big advantage emerges from shorter turnaround times, which when produced in UK is just 5-6 weeks, against 12-14 weeks when ordered from the Far-East.
However, the biggest challenge the retailers face in sourcing from UK is the shortage of skilled hands, which if not addressed urgently, could completely derail plans to localize production.
Experts are of the opinion that, UK garment retailers should produce only high-end clothing under UK-made labels as it would be difficult to compete on costs in mass-produced clothing, outsourced from cheaper overseas countries.
最近几个月，很多英国服装零售商表示倡导将制造业带回国并鼓励消费者购买英国制造的产品。
然而，零售商们面临最大的挑战的源头来自于英国手工业者的短缺，如果不立即处理，会完全破坏本地化生产的计划。
在过去的30-35年间，当纺织和服装产品的成本开始上涨，零售商们开始在一些低成本的国家，比如中国，印度，巴基斯坦和斯里兰卡来外包他们的产品。
NBrown像Jacamo一样的品牌，JD Williams 只不过是将其投资重组，当球滚动时，邀请潜在的供应商为了把当地的生产比例从当前的百分之一上升到整体销售的百分之五。
在本地化生产最大的优势就是零售商们可以预先订购小额的数量。另一方面，当在其他国家外包加工，他们不得不下数千件的订单。
第二个优势来自于较短的周转时间，在英国生产只需要5-6周的时间，而从远东下单则需要12-14周的时间。
专家们认为，英国服装零售商应该只生产附有英国制造标签的高端服装，由于在成本上难以竞争，无法大规模的生产服装，外包到更廉价的海外国家。
来源：Fibre2fashion
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