Export Marketing Survey: German Market for Textile and Clothing

This Project is financed
by the European Union
Support to Export Promotion
and Investment Attraction in
the Republic of Moldova
EuropeAid/126810/C/SER/MD
This Project is implemented by a
Consortium led by GFA
Consulting Group
Structure of the
German textile and
clothing industry
The following diagrams highlight the structure of the industry according to group
of products
Others
18
Others
4
Spinning
8
Workwear
4
Weaving
Finishing / Processing
Technical Textiles
9
17
20
Warp‐and weft
Hosiery
2
7
Non‐woven
13
Underwear
13
Ready made products
15
Outerwear
69
0 5 10 15 20 25
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Clothing
manufacturers
Germany is the 3 rd largest producer of clothing
the EU after Italy and France. The turnover of
the German clothing industry amounted to 8.1
billion € in 2008. The number of manufactures
and employees in the clothing sector is in
decline – from 1995 to 2006 minus 61%
employees and minus 67% companies. The
clothing business is geographically
concentrated with 80% of all companies being
situated in Baden‐Württemberg, Bavaria and
North Rhine‐Westphalia.
Germany’s leading OPT in EU
Germany is the leading EU country
with regard to OPT, accounting for
42% of the total value of OPT in the
EU. In 2007 the three main OPT
import countries for Germany were
Ukraine (141 Mo. €), Macedonia
(128 Mio. €) and Bulgaria (100 Mio.
€). It has to be noted though, that
the proportion of OPT, compared
to “normal” imports of clothing, is
low
Basically all German clothing manufactures have more or less turned into creative
and flexible trading enterprises with external job order production. At the same
time the German clothing companies orientated more towards foreign markets,
nowadays having an export share of about 40%.
Production and procurement strategy of clothing companies are:
1) In‐house or job order production in Germany
2) In‐house production abroad ‐‐ establishing own factories abroad or enter
into joint ventures in low‐cost countries
3) Job order production abroad ‐ Subcontracting, on basis of the following
concepts:
‣ Outward Processing Trade (OPT): most labour‐intensive work is
relocated
‣ Cut, Make and Trim (CMT): entire manual production is relocated,
material purchase is held on to for efficiency and quality reasons
‣ Free on Board (FOB): suppliers receive only product specifications
(e.g. design, fabric), and then manages the production themselves
4) Imports ‐ purchase of finished goods
Structural change
and business
strategies
For more than 30 years the German clothing sector is facing a far‐reaching
structural change, mostly due to low‐cost competition from Asia. As a
consequence most German manufactures have developed an outsourcing policy
as part of their restructuring process. The clothing production has been relocate
6