New lessons on purchasing practices uncovered, valuable to brands, retailers and manufacturers alike

After two years of work driving responsible purchasing practices, the Learning and Implementation Community (LIC) has come to an end. In a public meeting held on November 13^th, the LIC shared rich lessons from its two-year term revealing key areas of improvement among brands as a result of their participation.

Although a lot has been published about the risks of bad purchasing practices, and their potential impacts on human rights in supply chains – including excessive hours and low wages – relatively little has been shared and developed to show how this can be practically improved, with stories of companies making positive changes. So, in a push for real progress and practical action, the Responsible Purchasing Practices (RPP) ‘Learning and Implementation Community’ (LIC) was established in 2022 by key organisations in this space (Ethical Trading Initiative, Ethical Trade Norway, Fair Wear, German Partnership for Sustainable Textiles and Solidaridad). This community of 35 garment brands met online every two months, learning from manufacturers, experts and each other and practically trialling improvements in RPP and sharing their experience.

Every other meeting included manufacturers in practical break out group discussions. Some sessions had over 60 individuals from brands (commercial as well as sustainability teams) and 50-60 factory managers from key manufacturing countries. Some of these were strategic supply chain partners invited by brands, and some were invited through local apparel manufacturing associations, by the Sustainable Terms of Trade Initiative (STTI), a key partner of the LIC. The LIC was funded by STITCH and the Initiative for Global Solidarity (IGS), implemented by GIZ^[1] and the involvement of STTI was funded by GIZ FABRIC.

KEY OUTCOMES

70% of participating companies have gained feedback from their suppliers on the impact of their purchasing practices, 60% have improved two-way communication with suppliers and the same proportion have been actively working on joint problem solving. 55% have been working on increasing forecasting accuracy and the same proportion have been tracking internal critical path adherence, in order to improve it.

Animesh, a garment manufacturer in India commented, ‘We saw this as a good opportunity to raise issues that we are experiencing. The discussions were organized by a neutral third party, with brands we are not in business relationship with, so we could be honest without fear of losing business. If pricing or practices are not fair it will not be sustainable in the long run. I’m sure it will bring improvements, and it will be a win-win for both suppliers and brands.’

Participating brands have been open about the changes they have made to their purchasing practices following LIC participation.

Holzweiler is now giving more time for production, agreeing lead times based on information from suppliers, with a date after which no further changes are allowed.

HEMA shared their journey of gaining feedback from suppliers and buy-in from senior management, forming a cross-departmental team to oversee implementation of RPP.

Zeeman has carried out interactive RPP training for buyers and designers and worked with suppliers to develop a ‘Two-way Code of Conduct’ which also outlines their responsibilities towards suppliers.

Norwegian Concept have increased their video calls with suppliers, giving space for suppliers to share challenges and for them to find joint solutions, such as developing new products to use up excess material (full case study here).

Hobbs has clarified and simplified their critical path, given suppliers more detailed and frequent information on planned orders, increased efficiency of sampling and consolidated fabric purchases, to reduce excess waste (full case study here).

NEXT STEPS

The Working Group on RPP, an initial subset of which developed the ‘Common Framework on Responsible Purchasing Practices’ in 2022, has now grown (with Fair Labor Association and ET Denmark joining the organisations listed above) and is moving forward with other related activities including developing an Accountability Framework on RPP, which provides benchmarks and KPIs to measure companies’ performance, and is now open for consultation. They continue to promote the Common Framework as a reference point in the implementation of Human Rights Due Diligence legislation and will be sharing a Resource Hub online in 2025, with video clips and briefings to support companies in their journey to improve purchasing practices. To ensure collaborative learning of apparel brands and manufacturers, they will continue to collaborate with the STTI.

For further questions please contact:
Matthijs Crietee | STTI Project Lead at IAF | crietee@iafnet.com | Mobile +31 653 93 06 74

[1] The LIC was funded by the Initiative for Global Solidarity (IGS) implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH (supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development) and the Sustainable Textile Initiative: Together for Change (STITCH) (supported by the Dutch Government).