Bangladesh: Apparel brands' response to political unrest & supply chains crisis
UN Women/Fahad Abdullah Kaizer
"Are Fashion Companies Cutting and Running From Bangladesh?", August 27, 2024
...Only a handful of Bangladesh’s top apparel buyers have explicitly said that they will neither impose financial penalties nor shift sourcing away from the country...These include Aldi South, Asda, H&M Group, OVS, Puma, Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger owner PVH Corp. and The North Face parent VF Corp...
...Bestseller, C&A and Ikea only confirmed that they would not be seeking discounts or chargebacks due to delayed deliveries or canceling existing orders. Levi Strauss & Co. said that Bangladesh remains an important sourcing country and that it has not experienced significant sourcing or shipping disruptions “up to this point.” Primark also highlighted the South Asian nation’s importance but did not make a clear commitment about order levels, and Uniqlo owner Fast Retailing said that it doesn’t cancel orders that have been placed or change delivery or payment dates without a factory’s prior consent...
...Still others, including Aldi North, The Children’s Place, Cotton On, Gap Inc., Esprit, Kmart Australia, Kohl’s, Lidl, Wrangler owner Kontoor Brands, Mango, Marks & Spencer, Matalan, Next, Target Australia, Target, Tesco, T.J. Maxx operator TJX, Tom Tailor, Walmart and Zara owner Inditex, did not respond to requests for comment...
...The apparel sector was losing an estimated $150 million a day, SM Mannan Kochi, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association’s then-president said at the time. But he said that a bigger problem was the possibility that international brands and retailers were “losing confidence” in Bangladesh’s ability to deliver...
...Already, a July benchmarking study from the U.S. Fashion Industry Association, which Lu helped conduct, found that only 48 percent of American brands and retailers planned to increase their sourcing from Bangladesh over the next two years, a step down from 58 percent in 2022...
...On Tuesday the BGMEA asked the interim government for a soft loan of 1,900 crore Bangladeshi taka ($159 million), to be repaid in six installments, to help its members recover from the losses due to the protests and flooding...
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