Outerwear. - Business Location Switzerland

5.3.2 Outward Processing Trade (OPT)
The textile and clothing industry in Spain is a labour intensive industry
with relatively high labour costs. Outsourcing is a common
practice among Spanish clothing firms, however mainly within
Spain. INDITEX (Brand ZARA), for example, designs, produces
(50% is outsourced to subcontractors) and distributes its
own brands (vertical concept). The company policy of satisfying
customer demand almost immediately requires that INDITEX production
is almost entirely located in Europe, primarily in Spain to
provide the flexibility to respond quickly and effectively to market
trends. MANGO, Spain’s second largest textile company after
INDITEX, designs strictly women's wear for young urban women.
However, Mango manufactures only to 25% of its production in
Table 53: Largest supplying countries of OPT outerwear, 2006-2008
78
Position Country 2006 [‘000 €] Change from
2006
l Outerwear 2010
Spain. The remainder of Mango clothing is produced in China (approximately
50%) and Morocco (approximately 25%) but almost
100% on finished product basis.
The actual ‘Outward Processing Trade’ (OPT) business – usually
operated by apparel manufacturers - in Spain plays more and
more important role but represents only 1.7% of total outerwear
imports. The No. 1 OPT supplier is by far Morocco with € 0.1 billion
imports in 2008 (in 2006 only € 0.04 billion!) followed by Tunisia,
China and Macedonia. Basically, there are two reasons for the
extremely small OPT business: a. the strong clothing production
base in Spain with rather competitive prices and b. no tradition in
OPT business.
2007 [‘000 €] Change from
2007
2008 [‘000 €]
1 Morocco 38’754 148% 96’166 18% 113’660
2 Tunisia 4’707 257% 16’782 6% 17’813
3 China 984 27% 1’245 194% 3’655
4 Macedonia 672 -13% 583 40% 814
5 Bangladesh 27 -100% 0 625
6 Serbia 10 770% 85 163% 224
7 Turkey 6 -100% 0 200
8 Vietnam 141 -41% 83 129% 190
9 Moldova 0 69 74% 119
10 Pakistan 0 0 100
11 USA 2 -100% 0 53
12 Hong Kong 10 5% 11 346% 49
13 Guatemala 0 0 42
14 Mexico 0 0 19
15 Norway 2 -100% 0 3
16 Bosnia-Herz. 0 70 -97% 2
17 Thailand 32 87% 61 -97% 2
18 Switzerland 2 -100% 0 0
19 Romania 7’129 -100% 0 0
20 Bulgaria 12’702 -100% 0 0
Source: Eurostat 2009
Total 65’477 76% 115’382 19% 137’570