GLOBAL MANUFACTURING

The decision to manufacture garments outside of the United States or Western Hemisphere depends upon the product to be sourced, the origin of the selected fabric the factory capabilities whether located in the Far East, Middle East, India or Africa, One must address the garment quality required, costs of manufacturing, cycle time constraints, cost of the fabric and the transportation costs.

One of the popular notions recently has been to employ what’s called a ‘twin plant’ strategy, which is also a twin hemisphere strategy. Those products where you’re able to source larger quantities and can work with a longer lead-time from four to six months could be sourced in the Far East. But for products that need a quicker turn time you would want to source in this hemisphere because of speed to market, fulfillment or innovation capabilities.

Again, that’s going to be based upon the specifications and the requirements of the end customer and the delivery needs. The world is open. It’s just a question of where the best materials are, where the sourcing could be done with competent factories, and where the trade laws are applicable so there may be advantages to sourcing the products for price and quality.

Greco Apparel has worked with factories in China and Vietnam and that allows us to be competitive for higher volume items with longer lead times that would make global manufacturing a natural choice.