REPORT
No stocks, therefore no deadstock
Another way to cope with deadstock is to make sure you don’t produce any. For buyers, deadstock can represent an interesting investment. For sellers, however, disposing of deadstock products is just a way to minimise financial losses. If manufacturers can sell those products for a fraction of their worth, that means they don’t have to pay for the removal and destruction of their unsold merchandise, but the transaction doesn’t generate any profits. To find out how hat factories deal with this, we spoke with Jorge Miralles, fourth- generation owner of Manufacturas Miralles, based in Alicante, Spain. Manufacturas Miralles make classic
hats, predominantly for summer, like Panamas and fedoras in paper straw, seagrass or raffia. What they don’t stock is finished hats: Miralles only produces to order. This was not always the case; up until the 1970s and ’80s, they produced stock. At the time, they had only twenty or thirty styles which they made in large quantities, all year round. Today, they have over two hundred different items, each in eight or nine sizes and ten different colours. By manufacturing
only the exact quantities needed, they have zero deadstock. However, it is more difficult to satisfy the demands of their clients, who all want their orders delivered in March and April. Miralles’s biggest market is southern
Europe, but they also export to Japan, Korea, the US, and even countries like Turkey or Kazakhstan. Materials come from Ecuador (Panama straw) and Asia, and in order to keep close control of the quality, they prefer to import small quantities on a regular basis rather than order massive amounts once a year. Thus, they have stocks of raw materials for six or seven months ahead. One of the biggest changes Miralles
made over the last ten years is that they sell much more in advance. Clients used to order in spring for delivery a month later, which caused impossible peaks in production. Now, Miralles start selling their summer collection in September, and by December they have completed around seventy per cent of their sales. This makes it much easier to plan and control the whole production process and provide work for their staff of fourteen people all year round. Another change is the gradual abandonment of importations of
finished hats from China. When there was a demand for baseball caps and cotton hats, it was easier or Miralles to import them rather than make them themselves, but the risk of being left with unsold products is much higher. Twenty or thirty years ago, the only priority of clients seemed to be to buy as cheaply as possible, driving production away to low-wage countries. Jorge Miralles is happy to see a reverse movement towards closer-to-home production, appreciation of the ‘Made in Spain’ label, better quality control and, ultimately, less waste.
Alive and kicking
What emerges from these conversations is that excess stock is ‘dead’ only in the language of the linear economy, based on a ‘take-make-waste’ philosophy. Perhaps it would be more accurate to call it ‘dormant’ stock, which lies waiting, sometimes like Sleeping Beauty (as in the case of the aforementioned Johannesburg haberdashery), to be discovered and reanimated by courageous and passionate people, to the greater joy of artisans and lovers of extraordinary creations!
More information • Plooij Hats and Materials
www.plooij.nu
• Petershams Millinery Supplies
www.petershams.com
• Hutsalon Bollmann
www.meinhut.de
• Manufacturas Miralles
www.mirallesheadwear.com
Hats at Manufacturas Miralles
may 2024 | 53
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