Case Study Steinhouse Knitting Mills (Canada)

Do you think that English textile factories were bad for the health of working class families. Use evidence from at least two of the documents to support your claim.

It operates in more than 170 countries through its retail stores, online presence, independent distributors and licensees. The company capitalizes on its brand equity to drive its sales growth. However, high inventory and declined liquidity are a few causes for concern to the company. Emerging economies, especially Asian could open new growth avenues for the company driven by their accelerating economic activity. Growing counterfeit products market, intense competition and rising manpower cost could challenge the company’s profitable growth. (Global Data, 2012)

Analyzing the industry using Porter’s Five Forces, it can be seen that the Outdoor Apparel industry is very competitive. The threat of entry is very high, with several large conglomerates making acquisitions in the industry and established apparel companies such as Polo Ralph Lauren making expansions into sports apparel. With several brands such as North Face in the high end of the industry, as well as Columbia and several private labels dominating the middle and lower ends, a large number of substitutes are available. Buyers have large bargaining power, as end consumers could easily switch to another brand, while at the same time wholesalers are

2a. Consumers would certainly see a hike in prices on the imported product and in turn could affect the consumer’s ability to afford neither the domestic made clothing nor foreign made clothing.

That being said, suppliers can have some power in regards to choosing the number of stores where their product can be purchased at. This allows the suppliers to regulate their sales and stay away from the “red tape”. The bargaining power of customers impacts HBC as customers are able to influence pricing based on their buying habits. Of course, customers do not choose the retail prices offered to them, however, if inexpensive clothing were to lead the industry, retail stores would adapt to this consumer demand and offer an abundance of inexpensive clothing due to consumer preferences. These forces lead to rivalry among competitors due to the many options offered to consumers to grant their desires. These forces combine to cause strategic implications for HBC. HBC must differentiate itself from its competitors who, similar to HBC, have large annual revenue, strong and profitable supplier agreements and large amounts of capital. As well, due to competitors large sale volumes, competitive pricing is an implication which faces

If the government enacted a special tax on imported clothing making the selling price equal to the selling price of clothing made in the United States, shoppers would see imported items with much higher prices in discount stores. If the prices of clothing made in sweatshops and in the United States were comparative, shoppers would consider the trade-offs and opt to buy clothing made in the United States for higher quality, loyalty to United States workers, and the health of our economy (Mankiw, 2011, p. 4). Wal-Mart and “big-box” stores that sell so many imported clothing items would see a decrease in sales. Shoppers would choose to buy clothing at stores that sell clothing made in the United States. These stores would see an increase in sales.

* Procurement: As it is the second Europe’s cloth retailer company, for the production H&M uses a lot of material and workers so its mains recourses are material, labour and energy. That is why small changes in prices can affect the company’s profit a lot, and the fact that it does not own any manufactories causes some problems in controlling the production’s prices. However, not owning the factories can be an advantage in some cases. Indeed, if a problem appears, H&M can easily change its suppliers. Moreover, due to its huge size, H&M can easily manipulate with its suppliers to have the best quality at the lowest production’s price.

I think that the english textile factories were were bad for the health of the working class families because in article A Michael Ward said that the kids in there were getting their arms and legs just sliced open and fingers taken off. Also in document B it says that the person who wanted the reporter to take a report of the factory was the owner of the factory and that could mean that he just made a lot of that up. Another reason that i think that the factories are bad is because in document C it says that the workers had to work all day and they got only one meal. One more reason that I think that the factories were bad is because in document D it says that the children were often beaten by their overlookers.

Esquel, one of the leading cotton-shirt-manufacturers in the world came from China and it supplies lots of clothing brand such as Banana Republic, Tommy Hilfiger, Hugo Boss, Brooks Brothers, Abercrombie and Fitch, Nike, Nordstrom and Lands’ End, in addition to private companies (Plunkett Research, Ltd.). However, due to the high demand of the US apparel stores for Chinese products, the low cost, which was the main reason why raw materials are being purchased from China, have increased. China’s competition is huge, with Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Sri Lanka also producing material at cheap prices (Plunkett Research, Ltd.). The US apparel stores can instead purchase from these other Asian countries. It is hard to determine the exact number of suppliers in this industry; but, in general, majority of them are in Asian countries that can provide low-cost raw materials to US-based apparel stores. Therefore, the US apparel stores may acquire higher net profi

Retail stores and corporations are the third social actors, I believe that all they value is low expenses and high profit. Stores like Walmart and Old Navy buy in bulk for cheap then sell those bulks in individually priced clothes to consumers for cheap. This idea of marketing it as cheap and affordable makes consumers buy more. If the buyers didn’t have to pay that much for a bulk of clothing and then they turn around and sell it at an affordable price to consumers which is obviously more than what they bought it for it’s a win-win for retailers and

Although the Chinese apparel manufacturers would lose profitability due to rising cotton prices and competition from emerging countries, they stand to gain the most from the removal of U.S. quotas and tariffs. According to the author, in 2007, 95% of the 20 billion garments Americans made were purchased overseas. Due to U.S. trade barriers, China’s share of the U.S. apparel import was only 30%. Once these barriers were removed, Chinese apparel would flood the American market due to their low cost and dominance in garment manufacturing. Experts predict that China could eventually supply 85% of U.S. apparel. As they increase their market share in the

I went to order a sweater online today, but with all the rage about clothing companies and sweatshops I re-examined the situation. The sweater I wanted was made in Indonesia, I already have 6 sweaters so do I need another? I doubt I’d use that sweater frequently because I already have plenty. Nobody I know has this sweater so I couldn’t borrow it. That sweater wouldn’t have any useful impact on my life anyways. If I did order it somebody who is being mistreated would have more work and would only increase production. If I chose to buy this I’m only part of the problem and not the solution only worsening what clothing companies do.

Just like other industry, clothing industry have different player involved, including the cybermediaries. And the two clothing

There are segmented clothing and retail industries around the world. Therefore, there are provisions for a smaller number of firms in the industry. Although Creación has direct competitors like Jovian and

Rivalry among existing competitors: The apparel industry is highly competitive with a great number of both local and global competitors. As the market is mature, its growth is small. Accelerated growth and expansion to new markets are not easy goals to achieve. The barrier to get out of the industry is quite low for distributors, but high for producers. Most fashion manufacturers moved their production base to low-cost countries like China as wage and raw materials in developed markets like Western Europe are high. Besides, there is no great discrepancy in terms of quality of products, so customers make their purchase choices based on price and brand recognition.