DHAKA – Fashion firms Inditex, Target, Marks & Spencer and Kiabi say they will accommodate and pay for orders from Bangladeshi suppliers, having originally left the country’s garment manufacturers high-and-dry.
The decision to backtrack follows H&M’s announcement at the start of the week which said: “We will stand by our commitments to our garment manufacturing suppliers by taking delivery of the already produced garments as well as goods in production.”
A new report from the Centre for Global Workers' Rights, part of Penn State University's College of the Liberal Arts, highlighted the exponential impact retracted orders from fashion’s heavyweights have had on Bangladesh’s ready-made garment (RMG) industry. It spotlights that Inditex had called orders exceeding US$109 million, Kiabi by US$57m, M&S by US$39m and Target by US$24m.