Member Info for ragtrade

Asos pushing very very hard on prices and at same time buying far less quantity, average order is down to half and less in some cases, slowly but surely they are reducing old stock inventory, this has been at the forefront of the online offer and to the detriment of new stock but it is now starting to filter through to top of the offer, when it does the sales are encouraging and the cover is where it should be.

The industry as a whole really needs the sun to come out and stay out.

Jeremy indeed not, no open door that i can see, the truth will out and its then for Government and Public to decide, some are already doing so.

Https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68672700

Footieladbaz quote.

The Indian option is a dead end for ASOS, not least for PR where clothes made from the bleeding hands of Indian children would probably be the only way to achieve the price-points needed to sell there in quantity. Unquote.

I'm afraid this is such a huge cliche with no understanding of either the market or the reality.

The actual reality is that whilst you cannot watch dog every factory, mill, wash house all of the time Asos and Reliance and if not all Brands (Shein acception) have strong moral and ethical values re this. We are inspected every single year announced and at least twice unannounced and this is just one company, we work with many all of whom have the same standards, this is aside to our own moral and ethical views. Any breach of red codes results in huge fines and being immediately disengaged, so if you put the factories ethical and moral stance to one side from a business perspective it makes zero sense.

As i have said many times on these pages you really need to be looking elsewhere for abuses and under age workers, not least in parts on the UK let alone Bdesh, China, Myanmar in industries such as plastic toys, cheap footballs, kids fancy dress clothes, dog toys as these unbranded sectors i suspect have little or no one to answer to.

There is a big difference with the way that Asos offered in China to the Reliance India model that i think would be used here.

India is known in the Rag Trade and being a fully vertical country, in that it grows cotton, weaves fabric and manufacturers a huge array of fabrics and clothing. Reliance already has a very firm strong foothold in India, it produces under license many Brands from Hamleys to Marks and Spencer, i see little in the way of exposure to Asos if this is the route that it will surely go.

Reliance has a myriad of outlets and a massive massive following online and off online across it's diverse offer, this is linked in with a well versed domestic manufacturing network that has a equally massive population to draw on.

It's staggering to note that 50% of the population is under 25 and 65% is under 35, whilst i was aware of this stat i still had to check it because it is quite remarkable!

This is why you will see by the end of the year the UK doing it's first truly proper game changer of a trade deal post Brexit.

All in All the one word to describe Reliance and India is "Massive"

"Interesting to see what Nick Beighton does. I'm sure if he came back to ASOS it would have a big positive effect on the share price. Maybe that's what Mike Ashley wants..."

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo , Nick B was a nice guy but for me that's where it ends, personally i lay the blame of many of the ill's firmly at his door, until last year they had scant visibility on containers shipped, this is a basic requirement to manage stock, over the years time and time again all we would hear was DC's full DC's full, the stock management under his watch was shocking, i could go on but not for these pages. Thankfully this has now been addressed with the nomination of Maersk, still not perfect but streets ahead of where it was when it felt like they were just pi**ing in the wind on intake. Too cavalier for a sector that it so very fickle.

Quote

Meanwhile, some BOO news, rather than childish nonsense from the far east.

https://fashionunited.com/news/business/timeline-behind-boohoo-s-boulevard-of-broken-promises/2024022358566

Un Quote.

Currently reading the chat whilst sitting in Factory and thought I'd take the oppo to inform what most already know but some choose to ignore that on the Boulevard of Broken Promises sits many fashion houses, clothing retailers, supermarkets, politicians etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc, of which one of the worst offenders by a Country mile is allegedly in the Subject header of this post, the transparency is so opaque that even Xray eyes won't help.

What continues to puzzle me about Boo Hoo group is why journo's don't go for the much lower hanging fruit and fixate on the Rag Trade especially BH when other sectors are far less regulated.

#Drapers

River Island: High street retailer River Island is introducing a £2 processing fee to return items ordered online, The Sun reported on Sunday (25 February). The return cost will be deducted from the total amount of the refund.

River Island: High street retailer River Island is introducing a £2 processing fee to return items ordered online, The Sun reported on Sunday (25 February). The return cost will be deducted from the total amount of the refund.

This is such a non story again that even Drapers has not bothered to cover it, the BBC deffo has an agenda, doesn't make it right but some many companies across so many products do this make parts overseas and finish in UK then put in a UK C of O, this includes very high end Shoe Brands.

Bit weary of saying this, BH Group is made up of many Brands and therefore opportunities, it's not all about the Asos, BH, PLT, Shein demo, in fact we are seeing a bit of a shift to the 40 something being very resilient to the current tricky climate, you will see this play out in the trading figures of Brands that appeal to this sector, this Demo is well covered by BH Group.

I'm sure many will have seen this but this is just the start, you will see more and more headlines like this re Shein, it is going to be a very onerous share when they go to market and will make the past BH issues seem like cake walk in comparison.

Chinese ecommerce marketplace Temu has sued its rival Shein over claims that Shein "intimidated" suppliers it believed to be working with Temu and engaged in anticompetitive.

Happy Christmas, Peace, Love and Goodwill to all posters.

Nice to see this share holding the gains from last few days, we obviously head into a crucial time for trade and the mood music from the drum beats is that trade is not too bad, Drapers backing this up this morning and just as footnote our own order book is up 20% for SS24 with confidence much higher, this time last year was not a nice place to be. As always Christmas will bring winners and losers.

@Drapers#JadeBurke

Personal Financial Situation over the last 12 months has shown improvements too, up two points from -16 last month.

Joe Staton, client strategy director at GfK, said: “Against the backdrop of flatlining economic growth, interest rates at a 15-year high, and price rises potentially eroding disposable income for years to come, the Consumer Confidence Index shows a modest improvement this month with gains across all key measures.

“Although the headline figure of -22 means the nation’s confidence is still firmly in negative territory, optimism for our personal finances for the next 12 months shows a notable recovery from the depressed -29 reported this time last year. Recovery in this number is important as it best reflects household financial optimism and control over personal budgets.

“Despite the severe cost-of-living crisis still impacting most households, this slow but persistent movement towards positive territory for the personal finance measure looking ahead is an encouraging sign for the year to come.”

I've just posted this on Asos for anyone interested, it will pose a conundrum for Management if it smashes expectations,

Asos launches first pop-up store ahead of Black Friday

Online fashion giant Asos will launch a four-storey pop-up store in London's West End on 23-26 November as it looks to deliver its first in-person shopping experience for customers.

The pop-up store, at 11 Rathbone Place in central London, will stock a curated edit of its autumn/winter 23 collections from its own Asos Design, Asos Edition and Topshop ranges as well as third-party brands such as Nike, The North Face and New Balance.

Customers visiting the pop up will also be able to access an augmented reality (AR) catwalk show, powered by Snapchat and curated by the Asos in-house design team. They can see digital avatars showcasing a range of Asos outfits and virtually try on beauty products in-store.

Dan Elton, senior customer director at Asos, said: "As part of the ASOS Your Way campaign, we are excited to deliver our first in-person shopping experience for ASOS consumers this coming Black Friday weekend. The Asos In Real Life pop-up is a brand first, with the takeover of an entire Central London location that is shoppable both physically and digitally for visitors.

Not sure if this has been posted but will be interesting if this beats Management's expectations what they do with it.

@Drapers

Asos launches first pop-up store ahead of Black Friday

Online fashion giant Asos will launch a four-storey pop-up store in London's West End on 23-26 November as it looks to deliver its first in-person shopping experience for customers.

The pop-up store, at 11 Rathbone Place in central London, will stock a curated edit of its autumn/winter 23 collections from its own Asos Design, Asos Edition and Topshop ranges as well as third-party brands such as Nike, The North Face and New Balance.

Customers visiting the pop up will also be able to access an augmented reality (AR) catwalk show, powered by Snapchat and curated by the Asos in-house design team. They can see digital avatars showcasing a range of Asos outfits and virtually try on beauty products in-store.

Dan Elton, senior customer director at Asos, said: "As part of the ASOS Your Way campaign, we are excited to deliver our first in-person shopping experience for ASOS consumers this coming Black Friday weekend. The Asos In Real Life pop-up is a brand first, with the takeover of an entire Central London location that is shoppable both physically and digitally for visitors.

bns , if we talk about boohoo brand they do manufacture in india, in fact kamani himself was in delhi not so long ago negotiating prices, the biggest issue they have is placing 100pcs of a line, which is what they have been trying to do in order to de-risk in such volatile trading conditions. most overseas ftys are not set up for anything less than 500pcs of a style, it takes 2 hours to set a line for 100pcs or 10000pcs so productivity is a big issue as make cost goes thru the roof, places like bangladesh and vietnam even less so, as countries they are not fully vertical, eg producing cotton and procuring fabric in mills so fabric becomes a big issue as minimum for most mills is 5000 meters with an av 1.3 meters per garment. all this means uk becomes very cost effective on this smaller qtys for test repeat. lead times all ex country bdesh 120 days, india 90 days (can do less) china 90 days, vietnam 100 days, ****stan 90 days, turkey 60 to 90 days, add on shipping asia 30 to 40 days, turkey 14 days. uk 1 to max 2 weeks to make, in dc in matter of day or two. a few other notes, india looking very likely to sign uk trade deal giving saving of 9.6% import duty to uk. china is becoming undesirable due to political situation many retailers shifting towards more stable democracies. bh group, many brands many nuances, they need a wide sourcing base, which is what they have but specifically for bh and plt uk plc plays a big part.

Unbelievable piece of journalism, i didn't really believe the whole witch hunt BooHoo leftie thing but this article which was 3rd on the BBC headlines this morning confirms it.

I truly believe that this reporter went in trying to find something far more onerous but in the end all she could come up with is an already common knowledge accusation about them being tough on prices and a piece on retro discounts. As a supplier to the trade for 30 years inc BH Group i can tell you that just about every company we have supplied has done this. I do wish the Government would outlaw it but it's common practice and not just in the Clothing Industry. Absolute puerile piece of garbage article, get on a flight to China if your even allowed and go take peak at Shein if you really want to find something worthwhile. BBC really needs a massive overhaul, we are paying for this bullsh**e and there's the other scandal.

I've said on here many times that i'm afraid Gen Z cares a lot less than people think, Shein is and will continue to impact on any Brand thats focus is towards Glamour Girl.

However, BH has a stable of many offers that focus on a whole host of other demographics and in this respect they clearly differ from Shein, in fact if they really get there act together on Debs they could start to pinch market share from Next and even M & S.

The UK market has massively consolidated since Covid, many players have fallen by the wayside, BH Group, once we emerge from choppy waters, is one of the survivors it has a very diverse collection of Brands that cover just about every demographic across the UK and is set far to reap the rewards when the UK PLC starts to grow again.

Summer trade not been bad and might be a bit above expectations but given the warm weather i'd expect them to say last few weeks has been tricky, weather is pivotal for a good start to the season and 32 degrees is not what you want.

Perhaps goes without saying but i expect margins to be good.

Just a quick one, cotton price a pound has nearly halved now since the peak of 25/04/22 when it was at a peak of us$157 per pound, now down to average of last few months just under half that of us$70.

Factory gate prices subdued yet despite this no sign of retailers reducing prices.

Going to be interesting to see SS24 margins, i have feeling some maybe very surprised at the increases.

Sample sale Site closed "I think it was probably a one-off to clear stock. "

Don't think so, this is an idea taken from the like of high end skate Brands Supreme etc to offer in drops, it creates FOMO and will avoid sale fatigue plus getting people to sign up for future drops means very specific targeted marketing. At £5.00 with delivery and return charges they are cutting their losses significantly.

The more i see of this Jose the more i like him, still away to go but chinks of light now appearing at the end of very long dark tunnel .

Given the statements today by Zalando and Next the next trading will be fascinating.