2007 marks the year the Asian mill relationships the family textile enterprise had been working through since the early 2000s were formalised into a continuing sourcing programme. Those relationships continue today as part of our textile trade.
The reason for formalising the programme was practical. The sourcing had stopped being a series of transactions and had become a continuing commitment that needed its own people, its own quality discipline and its own direct relationships with each mill. The 2007 record is simply the point at which that was recognised and organised. The four sourcing origins the trade works with today, which are India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Japan, were built outwards from the programme set in place from that year.
Two features of the trade were established in this period and still define how it works. The first is that we deal with the mills directly, without placing agents or distributors between our own people and the supply base. The second is the standard the cloth is checked against, which is written down and applied to each order rather than agreed once and assumed afterwards. Both were assembled slowly, and both are the test the work is still measured against.
It is worth being clear about what the programme is not. We do not own the mills and we have never owned production. The relationships are commercial ones with independent businesses, held together by orders honoured, claims settled fairly and payments made when we said they would be. That is also why a long mill relationship is worth protecting. It is what secures capacity in a tight season and what earns a straight answer about a delivery date before a commitment is made.
What changed most after 2007 was the rhythm. A continuing programme means planning a season rather than chasing an order, agreeing capacity before it is needed, and knowing early which mill is under pressure. It also means being present. Buying cloth well is not something that can be done entirely by email, and the relationships that carry a difficult season are built in person over years.
The trade and export work is run in house from our Dubai office, and the cloth it buys also supplies our own label, wearon.co. One desk buys, checks and ships, and the same people answer for the result, which keeps responsibility in one place.
For the sourcing programme as it operates today, see textile trade. For the detail of what the desk does, see what the desk does.
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