Retail clothing group Truworths has rejected as false and misleading claims made by members of the South African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (Sactwu) that it does not support local procurement and manufacturing.
Truworths revealed that it is one of the biggest supporters of the country’s clothing and textile sector.
“Truworths already buys the bulk of its garments locally, and we are surprised that Etienne Vlok of Sactwu ignores the facts and instead blames Truworths without once dealing with the real facts.
“While we do retain the right to a flexible sourcing strategy, we nevertheless source about 75% of our garments from local suppliers. Our business has saved jobs because of the size of our orders, and we appeal to Sactwu to stick to the facts,” said Tony Taylor, deputy MD of Truworths.
“We prefer local suppliers because of the flexibility they give us, as well as their understanding of the South African market, and Vlok’s claim that we want to increase imports is not true,” added
Taylor.
“The success of the local clothing and textile industry is important to Truworths, and we agreed with the union that something needs to be done to turn its fortunes around.
“But we believe that to come up with a cure for the ills of the industry, the diagnosis of the real problem must be correct, and this is primarily based on the difficulty the local manufacturing industry is having in competing in a global economy against the background of a strong currency,” concluded Taylor. — I-Net Bridge