As per the reports the UK textiles sector needs a more imaginative industrial policy to help it build the capabilities needed for a sustainable future. The project that produced the report was funded by the British Cotton Growers’ Association Work People’s Collection Fund.
The findings of the research ‘Coming Back? Capability and Precarity in UK Textiles and Apparel’ are directly relevant to the current UK Government consultation on industrial strategy and to debates about restoring manufacturing as the Textile and Apparel sector remains important but is now dominated by small and micro-firms with, on average, low investment, productivity and wages. While it is possible to make high quality products in the UK, many producers struggle with low returns. The report argued that the industry policy needs to have a more explicit focus on the textile sectors by addressing some of the specific challenges.
The report points out thatat present, more than 80 per cent of clothing and textile products is manufactured abroad. The UK T&A sector has been considered largely a part of the UK’s industrial past, not its future and the sector has been in long-term decline since the 1970s.
The report further explained about the Ecological conditions and on how the business environment acts as an ecology that offers both opportunities and challenges to producers. Therefore shape the way in which firms develop the productive, marketing and finance capabilities that they needed to be sustainable.
In contrast, many small clothing manufacturers have little power in their relationships with major retailers, resulting in low and uncertain profit margins. These conditions make it more difficult to achieve prices necessary to pay UK wages, manage risk, secure a modest return for business owners and invest for the future.
In the apparel sub-sectors researchers making sure management succession and securing patient capital that can withstand the cyclicality of the industry are relevant to sustaining capabilities. The report does not only focus on number of jobs but explore the sustainability for industrial policy in textiles and apparel manufacturers.
