Industry insiders are pointing out that Bangladesh is struggling to fully capitalise on the shift in foreign readymade garment (RMG) buyers’ sourcing strategies, which now favour smaller order quantities even as these buyers continue to prefer China due to its adaptability and agility.
Media reports underlined this while adding the change in consumer demand patterns and fashion trends has led buyers to opt for smaller work orders. While Bangladesh has started to secure some of these orders, their numbers remain relatively low even as several key factors have been identified contributing to this situation, including the extended lead time required for shipping goods, the lack of a robust backward linkage industry (particularly for woven garments), and the mindset of business owners.
Supporting this view, a recent case study titled US Fashion Companies Evolving Sourcing Strategies – A PVH Case Study by Sheng Lu, an Associate Professor in the Department of Fashion and Apparel Studies at the University of Delaware, highlighted similar trends.
PVH Corporation (PVH), the parent company of renowned brands like Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger ranks as one of the largest US fashion companies, with sales revenue of nearly US $ 9.2 billion in 2022. Lu examined PVH’s detailed sourcing strategies and changes from 2021 to 2022 using the company’s publicly released factory list.
In 2022, PVH sourced apparel items from 80 factories in China, with Brazil, Turkey, and India each providing 60 factories, and Sri Lanka and Vietnam each contributing 49 factories. Portugal and Bangladesh supplied 43 and 40 factories, respectively.
The study also revealed that PVH’s contracted garment factories in China tend to be smaller compared to those in other Asian countries. In 2022, the majority of PVH’s contracted garment factories in top Asian supply countries such as Bangladesh (87.5 per cent), Vietnam (63.3 per cent), and Sri Lanka (65.3 per cent) employed more than 1,000 workers, indicating a difference in factory scale across these nations.
