Comments on: What is Private Label Branded Apparel?

By: Amet

Amet — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 19:38:37 +0000

Thats sacrosant: get the money first – give them a good price instead, but make sure you are covered – thats how we try doing it everytime. Granted, we have lost some business on account of this, but we’re still in business right?

By: Fashion Incubator » PSA: Don’t go to Magic to buy fabric

Fashion Incubator » PSA: Don’t go to Magic to buy fabric — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 00:48:05 +0000

[...] It was started so that buyers (stores) -not sellers like you- could arrange for the possibility of private labeling to fill out their merchandising mix. In other words, Magic is still the (store) buyer’s [...]

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:11:25 +0000

I need to be more creative with the search feature

I suggest being proactive by posting the question. Ask and you shall receive.

By: Kristi Hayes

Kristi Hayes — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 02:21:06 +0000

“Tis because I am a lurker. Talk of garment construction is very interesting to me, but it quickly spins out of my range of what I can usefully contribute to. I spent quite a while reading through threads referencing “private label” and didn’t find pricing discussion, but I need to be more creative with the search feature, I guess. Thanks!

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:24:12 +0000

I know we’ve discussed it at length on the forum but I can’t remember in what thread or section. Try poking around in there. We haven’t seen you in there for awhile anyway .

By: Kristi Hayes

Kristi Hayes — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 11:51:49 +0000

Thanks for this article!

Where could I read more about pricing private labels?

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Tue, 13 May 2008 15:47:29 +0000

If anyone is interested, Centric Software has released a report on Status and Trends in private label sourcing. Registration is required.

By: Kiran Bindra

Kiran Bindra — Wed, 07 May 2008 19:14:17 +0000

The lure of a big name company many times entices the manufacturer to agree to all the terms demanded by the company. In our experience, the manufacturer has to have a really good hold on contracts and a strong person in charge for negotiations. Once the private label seekers see the benefits of working with a no-hassle company, they will happily agree to 30-50% deposit on a production order.

My advise would be to do a sample run for a private label project (definitely get paid for the samples – industry standard is 2x the production cost). Let them review the working procedures, the levels of communication, understanding and interpretation of requirements, delivery times and budget on the samples provided by your operation. This exercise not only builds confidence in your client on your manufacturing but also gives you an indication on how well they know what they want (designs, fabrics, patterns, etc), how clear and definitive their requirements are (avoid companies that change their mind every week)and finally if they pay their sampling bills on time – cha-ching!

In this industry, given the risks and changing variables in the global equation, the contracts and the deposits have to be strictly in place for the company mentioned in the post, as well as an operation as ours to stay in business in the US for years and decades to come!

Quoting Kathleen – “Get the money first: If you’re buying goods exclusive to the store’s request, they must agree to specific quantities and a down payment (at least 50%) is in order”…

By: Mike C

Mike C — Tue, 06 May 2008 19:09:34 +0000

We get asked about private label from time to time. Its not something we’re really interested in doing. Anything we’d do on private label could probably be farmed out of country if volumes ever got to the point where they were interesting.

We do get quite a bit of interest in co-branding though. Companies will buy our garments and then logo the exterior with embroidery or screen-printing. We’ve always done a little business with that. I expect it will reach 5-10% of our total for 2008, though the majority of that is from one customer.

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Tue, 06 May 2008 18:51:23 +0000

However, demise was not a necessary outcome. Had this company recognized that this deal had potential to put the company at risk, then it would have been prudent to consult a turnaround specialist early on.

I agree this wasn’t an unavoidable outcome. They should have gotten 50% of the total contract’s value, not 25% of the cost of inputs.

I hate to say this but this is a rather naive position for this contractor to be in. This illustrates in part, why suppliers and contractors DO NOT CARE how big you are, if anything, it can put you in a position to hurt them worse. Believe me, I hear plenty of complaints about big companies too, I just don’t print them because it’s germane to this site. Companies that should know better, get starry-eyed by a big brand name. What we haven’t heard is how many companies *Biggest* Name Lingerie retailer went to before this company, who turned them down cold.

{Hey… isn’t this a lean principle?}

Yes it is, absolutely. Lean practitioners don’t grind discounts out of vendors through heavy handed demands, they need them. Their strategy is to help suppliers get leaner so their costs and subsequent prices will decrease.