Rebecca at factory in China
I arrived in China last night. To travel here from Hong Kong is around 6 hours by train and bus. We got to the hotel at 10:00 p.m. Raymond’s friend picked us up. He owns a sweater factory here. He is nice but he does not speak much English. We went to a restaurant close to the sea for fish. They spoke Chinese during the meal so I just enjoyed the food. This happens a lot here. I don’t mind.
After we ate we went to a massage parlor. I was massaged for 2 and a half hours. It was totally great. Didn’t get back to the room until 2:00 am.
Woke up and met with Betty. The design technician at the factory. She drove us to the factory. Its an hour from the hotel. There we worked most of the day on Fall 09 production and Spring 2010 samples. This is my third year working with this factory and every time its gets better. They now what I want and they do it.
Tonight I am having dinner with the new factory owners. Tomorrow I will visit and factory and view the samples.
Being a Westerner and employing Chinese factories, it is hard to avoid the question of slave labour. Since the time I have been doing business in the Orient. I have only visited one factory that made me uncomfortable. It was in the beginning when I was not as confident to make choices based on who I want todo business with. As it turned out they did not develop good samples. So there was no point in me working with this factory.
Now that I have a little more experience, I can make choices about the types of factories I want to employ. I think it is relevant that these kind of factories do not produce good products. There is no good reason to do business with people who do not treat there employees well. It is bad business to send thousands of dollars, for a product you won’t even see for 4 months, to a factory that has unsafe and poor working conditions. The potential for the factory being shut down is too hight. If this happens you loose your money.
Many of the factories are monitored regularly and by surprise. The people I work with adhere to these policies. Any factory running a profitable business have to follow many safety regulations and if they don’t they are shut down.
The Chinese, like everyone else in the world, have been hit hard by the downturn of the global economy. The US just isn’t manufacturing like they did even two years ago. The Chinese rely very heavily on a healthy US economy for manufacturing. The business is just no longer there.
Raymond is slow with his US clients. They are not producing this season. This is stressful for him, but he thinks this will change in autumn, which it probably will. The US needs China, so as soon as their economy starts to recover they will be back. Many factories will not withstand the wait. This is happening in the West too, many businesses won’t make it through this time either. It’s just a reality for all businesses right now.
Factory awards
Rebecca at factory in China
