26


Issue 1 2019 - Freight Business Journal


///CLOTHING & APPAREL


Xpediator boxes clever


Braintree, Essex-headquartered freight management business Xpediator group, has long provided international service between the main garment- producing regions of the world and UK and Europe, for both hanging and boxed garments –


and complexity against the need to iron or steam-tunnel garments in some cases using 3PLs or even in small holding areas in shops. Retailers have been increasingly setting up their supply chains around the transport of boxed goods.


(EMT) service which handles storage, processing and final delivery in the UK and Europe. This mostly supports smaller orders or where there are complexities requiring replenishment, storage or values added services. EMT is also an ideal solution for making boxed garment shop- ready, where the client doesn’t perform this service itself. Garment logistics still has its


complexities. GOH items must be presented to the retailer’s DC in the right order of size, colour and so on – not unlike the sequencing operations carried out in automotive manufacturing. The geographical pattern


although the latter has tended to predominate in recent years, says Shaun Godfrey, group chief operating officer of Xpediator’s Freight


Forwarding services,


provided under the Delamode, Benfleet and Anglia brands. He explains: “We have


European services, to and from Eastern Europe, where there is still a lot of garment production, and also Turkey, North Africa as well as Italy, Germany and Spain.” Delamode also offers a full range of air and ocean services to and from the major garment production regions of Asia such as Bangladesh and Vietnam. Transport


of boxed


garments has come to the fore in the last 15 years or so with a significant reduction in garments on hanger (GOH) transport as clients have traded off the savings in cost


However, there remains some demand for GOH transport – tailored suits and similar items of formal clothing do not take too readily to being folded up in boxes – and several specialist operators still offer this service in both trailers and shipping containers. As well as inbound into the


UK, there is also quite a strong outbound garment trade from the UK to Europe; many British high street brands have established a presence on the Continent and have set up distribution centres there. In fact, some of Delamode’s work is in moving products between DCs in the UK and Europe, to help cater for fluctuations in demand in this fast-moving industry. As well as the transport


services, the group also offers its Easy Managed Transport


of the fashion industry hasn’t changed too much in the last few years. Asian countries such as Bangladesh, China and Vietnam remain the centres of low-cost production, with Eastern Europe, Turkey and North Africa mainly providing a role for more complex orders or those needing quick turnaround at the more fashion- conscious end of the market. And Italy and others remain the centre of manufacturing at the luxury end of the market. The Asian countries do


offer much lower basic labour costs than Europe or the near- European countries but at a cost of added complexity, especially when it comes to customs. Godfrey says: “It all comes down to where the fabric and trim comes from and what work is being done on it, and where. For example, it might be fabric shipped from Italy


to the Far East to be made up and then shipped back to the UK. You need to prove where the material originated, how much is used and how much work was done on it in the Far East – so you need an excellent documentation system”


- and


some firms are better than others in this respect. Godfrey would question


whether doing work in Asia is as effective as the initial labour cost initially implies, except for the larger orders, if one considers the extra management time, full supply chain cost and efficiencies and backroom overhead associated with managing production in these areas. Brexit could of course


introduce a measure of this complexity to movements between the UK and the remaining EU countries and in fact the garment trade – along with, possibly food, drink and automotive – would be among the most severely affected by a ‘hard’ Brexit. Some


Xpediator


clients to


have carry


asked out


feasibility studies for moving more product


directly from


overseas to Europe rather than via the UK, a clear sign of the way many think things could go.


That said, fashion industry


supply chains are often complex and are frequently in a state of flux. Even before the Brexit vote, there was a trend among retailers towards setting up Continental European DCs and reviewing supply chains rather than


doing everything via the UK, simply because it increasingly made good logistics sense anyway. The Internet is meanwhile


having a profound impact on the fashion supply chain and, indeed, the fashion industry. That said, while the Xpediator Group does handle a lot of e-commerce business through its many logistics hubs in the UK and Europe,


so far not


solutions to more fashion clients in the UK or Europe, perhaps getting those who only use certain aspects of its offering to use other services too. There is also great potential to sell the group’s portfolio in Continental Europe as well as the UK. Godfrey says: “We do have a lot of fashion expertise in Europe, as well as the UK, ranging from air and sea transport to final


too much of it has been in the fashion sector. The EMT service could though provide a ready solution for clients needing to get to grips with the complexities of delivering direct to consumers or the increasingly difficult area of returns management. “Doing more e-commerce business in fashion is certainly something we are equipped to manage, both in terms of IT solutions and physical capability” Godfrey says. Meanwhile, the Xpediator


Group plans to offer its comprehensive suite of


mile distribution and, as we also offer our own customs clearance services, we can be a one-stop shop. We can also give our clients full on-line visibility tools.” And, like any good supply


chain service company, Xpediator is always on the look-out for up-and-coming production centres and markets. Lately, Moldova - a small non-EU country sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine – has emerged as a production area for the future and is expected to become increasingly important.


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