March 2009 management briefing

BRIEFING: The best style model: integrated textile and clothing companies, or networks of independent suppliers?

1 March 2009

The growth in outsourcing within the clothing and textile sector worldwide has highlighted a key issue, and that is the relative merits of running an integrated company that handles basic production and design, or relying on a string of specialist suppliers to deliver the goods. This is not a new question for the sector. The clothing industry has sourced fibre, dyes and textile from foreign countries for centuries. But today, with developed world clothing companies increasingly moving production to low wage countries abroad, they are facing the question of whether the designers should be located near the place of production or at the company headquarters. But what about a truly integrated clothing firm that sourced fibre, cloth, design and assembly all in the same region? just-style investigates the issue in depth, looking at Asia, Europe and north America.