Durban - Speed and flexibility have been the key to The Foschini Group (TFG) apparel supply company's successful fight against cheap Chinese imports.
TFG supplies about 30 percent of Foschini's clothing. The balance is made up of imports as well as products from other local clothing manufacturers.
Peter Flowers, the operations director, said that when buying from China there was no opportunity for last-minute changes to orders based on what was selling, whereas TFG could make styling changes up to three weeks before delivery to retailers.
"This gives us great pain and grey hairs but if red skirts aren't selling and red pants are, we can make last-minute changes that work for the retailers," he said.
"Virtually anything we make can be bought cheaper from China but it is flexibility and speed that drive our company."
TFG was established 34 years ago to manufacture solely for the Foschini group of companies.
The apparel company has no factories of its own but produces a sample range of garments, which it outsources to about 30 cut, make and trim (CMT) companies employing about 5 000 workers.
Foschini supplies the CMT operations with fabric and patterns that are designed in-house and each factory is visited every day by at least two Foschini employees - one from production and the other from quality.
"We give the companies technical advice and help them manage their finances and their production," said Flowers.
The CMTs make women and children's fashions and turn out about 5.5 million garments a year for the group.
Ninety percent of them are made in Cape Town and the rest in out-of-town factories in Worcester, Bloemfontein and Ladysmith.
Flowers said confidentiality had a lot to do with TFG's success.
"If you are ordering through other manufacturers it is likely that elements of your design are going to be similar to what is being sold by other groups, but because all our design is done in-house, we can be assured of complete confidentiality and unique products," he said.
Reliability is another element of the group's success and Flowers said Foschini was always meticulous in ensuring that there were never any empty shelves in its stores.