Emma Thompson is the latest in a line of celebrities to slam luxury goods brand Burberry after it told 300 workers at its plant in Treorchy, south Wales, that it would close the plant in March.
Ms Thompson warns that Burberry will appear “inauthentic” if it exports jobs to China, and that the company is engaged in the “bastardisation” of its brand.
“When I buy clothes, I always check to see
where they are made. When an item that is so clearly branded as British
to the core is ‘Made in China,’ I’m afraid that I often put that
article straight back, suspecting corporate greed and unacceptably low
wage packets for the producers of that article.
“Burberry
should not make this move — it will brand itself as greedy, unethical
and, perhaps most importantly for the profile of the company,
inauthentic.” Read more
Although products can be officially manufactured abroad, they are designed in the home country. So should we add some copy to the label, extolling the virtues of care and design, to mitigate the negative effect of the mandatory "Made in China"? maybe..
You can however, keep manufacturing within the home country if:
1) You can create an extremely agile and responsive manufacturing system.
2) You implement world-class logistics and supply chain management strategies.
3) You coordinate very closely with your retailers, the amount of inventory on their shelves and make their profitability your biggest customer goal.
By doing this, you will save on shipping costs from China AND be quicker to repsond to replenishment requests.
You want a case study? Read up on Zara in Spain.
Posted by: mvellandi | January 09, 2007 at 01:19 PM