After nearly 3 ½ years and much anticipation covid travel restrictions were finally lifted (more or less) meaning our buying team received the green light to return to China to visit all our key suppliers once again. The ability to meet suppliers face to face cannot be underestimated and seeing our China office again after so long, instead of over video calls! Having touched down in Shanghai it was good to see the city had not lost all its eastern charm, with its famous street food, endless traffic jams and vast choice of shopping. The team were pleasantly surprised how the city had improved over the lockdown period demonstrating Chinese efficiency alive and kicking once again!
Why do we travel to China?
The team headed back west from Shanghai, inland by high-speed train for the first of more than a dozen meetings during the 12-day trip. This followed by a short plane ride back to the coast in the industrial southeast of China where the weather is generally warm or simply just hot year-round interspersed with the annual monsoon season. The number one priority of the 2023 trip was putting the final touches and signing off our eagerly awaited new range ‘Kinetic’. Kinetic has taken more than 2 ½ years to develop, which is twice as long as other ranges historically. Kinetic is collectively the most premium and technical range we have developed to date, the combination of new performance fabrics, prints and specialised trims utilised in this range has really taken Kinetic to a new level.
This trip has highlighted you really can’t replace being in front of suppliers, building knowledge and ensuring you have your finger on the pulse. The partnerships we have built with our trusted suppliers prior to the covid period has been invaluable – for Chadwick’s as a business the importance of always working directly with specialised factories is vital to our success.
Quality assured
At Chadwick, we pride ourselves on the quality and consistency of our products. Our proven quality procedures is integral to delivering garments with the correct fit and function according to their intended use to give our customers confidence when offering Chadwick Teamwear over more famous name brands.
Quality is rigorously controlled at every stage of manufacturing with the help of our own full time ‘Chadwick’ QCs (not third parties) employees based in our China office. 1 or more of our 8 strong team will visit the factories on an almost weekly basis reporting back to the UK regularly. This enables us to make informed decisions quickly or solve an issue much faster than just waiting for samples to arrive at our UK office to make a decision. Travelling to China and spending time with our staff allows us to offer them invaluable training, product updates, problem solving sessions and continue to build their awareness of our expectations and business operations. It’s hard for us to imagine that many Chinese have never travelled outside China, their perception of ‘The Western world’ is a little different from the reality and helping them to understand why we insist on high quality is an education. That said, Chinese people are without doubt some of the most hardworking, honest, and clever people you will find in the world, their naturally respectful and gentle culture means they are happy to listen and learn.
Environmental impact and sustainability
Environmental impact and sustainability factors are now becoming just as important to china as it is in Europe and the rest of the world and in some respects, China has overtaken us in terms of implementation. A key part of our development here at Chadwick’s is to ensure we and our suppliers follow a sustainable code of practice, this was a key discussion point whilst in China with all suppliers. OEKOTEX is an independent testing certification for fabrics and trims is specified by Chadwick’s wherever possible and we have recently carried out full independent factory assessments in conjunction with ITS Intertek. In addition, all our vendors adhere to the Amfori / BSCI (business social compliance initiative) and we encourage all suppliers to follow a positive working culture for all workers and seek to continuously improve.
The addition of recycled packaging has recently been achieved and we are seeking to convert fabrics to recycled polyester step by step as long as the science is telling us this is the right thing to do. There is still much to do, but, we have already planned the next trip later this year by which time many of our new exciting new products will have arrived into UK stock. We are already looking at what next as well as looking forward to sampling yet more of that famous Chinese cuisine.
