SONAR|HES-SO

SONAR|HES-SO

SONAR|HES-SO regroupe les travaux de bachelor et master diffusables de plusieurs écoles de la HES-SO. Consultez cette page pour le détails.

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Bachelor thesis

Reshoring : the response to supply disruption in the UK textile and apparel (T&A) industry caused by Brexit

  • Genève : Haute école de gestion de Genève

87 p.

Bachelor of Science HES in International Business Management: Haute école de gestion de Genève, 2022

English The UK is a global player in the textile and apparel industry, with world-famous brands ranging from luxury to affordable piece of garments of the fast-fashion segment. Thanks to the single market with the European Union, the industry has enjoyed facilitated access to their largest trading market: Europe, which accounts for no less than 75% of the garments exported from the UK. In 2016, this free trade was jeopardised by the acceptance of the Brexit initiative, and, on 1 January 2021, it came into force, challenging the industry's highly globalised supply chain. The question of bringing certain operations back home was then raised by British brands, seeing the uncertainty on tariffs and the bureaucratic complexity to which they must now comply at customs.
Reshoring, the process of bringing back home the offshore production, is emerging as a prime solution to overcome these undesirable effects of customs, allowing more local production and to take advantage of the “Made in the UK” trademark. What is the actual situation? What are the consequences experienced by businesses one year after the entry into force of the Brexit and what solutions are companies considering overcoming the new trade barriers associated with it?
The aim of this work is to answer these questions through holistic research that interviewed companies, experts within the UK and surveyed British and European consumers. By mixing quantitative and qualitative analysis through thematic analysis, the findings allow different perspectives to be linked in order to gain a global view.
The results show that the issue of reshoring is not as simple and is much more polarised than expected. Out of a total of 219 participants, almost half of the consumers surveyed were willing to pay a higher price for a garment labelled 'made in UK', at a 45% premium to the original price of the garment. These results show an encouraging potential for more domestic production. However, uncertainty over the political landscape and trade regulations is weighing heavily on businesses and could have perverse results for the UK economy in ways that run counter to the benefits predicted by Brexit supporters. It could even, in certain cases, lead to complete expatriation of UK production into the EU.
The study concludes with a discussion of the types of fashion companies most likely to benefit from a home country reshoring strategy, and the criteria and assumptions on which UK brands might base such a decision. In addition, other solutions are being considered to circumvent the issues caused by Brexit such as bringing currently offshore operations closer to the UK such as neighbouring European countries.
Language
  • English
Classification
Economics
Notes
  • Haute école de gestion de Genève
  • International Business Management
  • hesso:hegge
Persistent URL
https://sonar.ch/hesso/documents/321847
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