26th October 2018
Major clothing businesses back Global Commitment to eradicate plastic waste and pollution at source
Among the 290 organisations behind the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's New Plastics Economy Global Commitment are H&M, Inditex, M&S, Target and Burberry. Most have committed to extensive steps towards eliminating plastic by 2025
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21st June 2018
Tesco and Walmart “ignore labour practices disclosure”
Tesco and Walmart "ignored calls for more information on their labour practices", said the FT on May 1. They are among over 40 large companies apparently failing to reply to a ...
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9th November 2016
Post Trump and Brexit: there’s more than one way to skin the international retailing cat
While American voters were confounding practically all observers on November 8, on the other side of the Atlantic Britain’s Marks & Spencer unveiled a strategy that may be designed for...
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26th September 2014
Cambodian government gets subtly different pressures from foreign buyers and unions over minimum wages
In separate mid-September letters to the Cambodian government, a group of European buyers and the major international union federations pushed for surprisingly similar, but still different, approaches to setting Cambodia's...
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8th January 2014
Factory owners and retailers differ over future of Cambodian garment industry after year-end strike
Two startlingly different views emerged on January 6 and 7 about the effect of Cambodia's garment strike on the industry's prospects for 2014. Cambodian factory owners pessimistic. Garment Manufacturers Association in...
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2nd January 2014
Retailers start Bangladesh compensation funds as media “shaming” campaigns make little progress
Late December media campaigns to shame the US government into adopting an ethical sourcing policy and worldwide buyers into compensating Bangladesh factory tragedy victims seem to have made no progress....
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6th October 2013
Inditex property seized in Argentinian “slave labour” investigation
Public officials raided Inditex offices and branches around Buenos Aires on September 26, and seized files and computers, as investigations continued into allegations of the company's involvement with slave labour...
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4th October 2013
C&A belies closure rumours, as fashion chains invade Brazil
C&A, Brazil's leading fashion retailer, appeared to quash last year's closure rumours by opening 30 new Brazilian stores in 2013, bringing its total in the country to 260. C&A opened 26...
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25th September 2013
Bangladesh violence: first major buyers “threaten to quit”
"Orders will go to other countries if the unrest prolongs,” Bangladesh's Daily Star reported a Dhaka-based manager at an unnamed German retailer as saying on September 25. The fall of...
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25th June 2013
Tesco and Walmart delisting decisions spark public controversy
Tesco’s decision to stop sourcing from Liberty Fashion in Dhaka, and Walmart’s decision to blacklist Liz Apparels have shown more problems in appraising factories. On June 15 Tesco announced...
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10th May 2013
Mystery over Inditex “slave labour at factories in Argentina” claims
No satisfactory explanation has been offered by the activist group whose allegations of slave labour in Argentina have been rejected by Inditex. At the beginning of April, activist group La...
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27th January 2013
KiK implicated in third fatal fire as Inditex suspends suppliers and seven killed in Bangladesh
At least seven people were killed after a fire at a manifestly unsafe factory apparently supplying German discounter KiK and Inditex - the world's largest specialist clothing chain - in...
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