This is an expanded guide to global sourcing opportunities and costs for the apparel sector. It is a practitioner's guide rather than an academic reference, but is a mine of useful information for students of the sector and represents an essential addition to any library catering for such students as well as a vital source of document for all apparel retailers, manufacturers and sourcing operators engaged in global operations around the world. It contains over 250 pages of information and statistics on such important issues as labour costs, productivity and sourcing costs for some 78 countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas. It also includes a risk assessment for each country.
In relation to earlier editions there has been some loss of information which I felt was particularly useful, e.g. transport times from sourcing locations to major markets. However, given the range of counties covered it is understandable that choices have to be made as to what to include.
There is a useful introduction to developments in global sourcing of apparel which pays particular attention to the potential of direct sourcing by the retailer which may not make comforting reading for those remaining manufacturers in developed countries. There is also a useful summary of essential activities for the retailer sourcing abroad.
The production cost index (formerly the sourcing cost index) is based on an analysis of a “model” factory. There is still a sourcing cost index which extends the analysis to include logistics costs and which covers three volume sizes and three manufacturing time totals. My main criticism from an academic point of view would be that a potentially useful diagram on page 9 which charts the growth of EU apparel imports 1995‐2003 is based on a concept identified as CAGR which, as far as I can tell, is never defined. It seems to be an average growth rate of some kind – Community average growth rate? Assuming this is correct it is significant that China's growth rate was over 20 per cent as compared to 8.6 per cent for Turkey. China was far and away the biggest supplier to the EU in volume terms. At the time of writing (May 2005) the EU does seem to have woken up to the threat posed by China!
In summary, this is an essential addition to the literature for both academics and practitioners in the apparel sector. In view of the demise of the Werner International statistics on labour costs in the apparel sector (as opposed to the textile sector), in 1998 this document is now the only source of comparative costs for the apparel sector specifically over a wide range of countries. There is no ISBN number on the document nor is there a price.
Richard M Jones
Editor
