Tom Lovelace
Founder & Chief Creative Officer Hawthorn International
Around 70% of our business is with brands in UK
Hawthorn is one of UK's leading clothing manufacturers. In an interview with Fibre2Fashion, Tom Lovelace, Founder & Chief Creative Officer, Hawthorne, throws light on UK's clothing industry describing its strengths as a region and how Hawthorne keeps itself abreast in a highly competitive industry.
How is UK's clothing industry positioned in the world market? What are the strengths of the region?
UK is one of the world's fashion power houses, with London being the capital both of the country and of the fashion scene. We're based in London and are well placed to keep on top of the high street and high fashion trends which our clients find useful, as we can offer guidance on their designs based on what's going on in the industry. London also hosts fashion week, an event that people travel to from all over the world!
What percentage of your products are exported and what percentage consumed in the domestic market?
We work with customers all over the world, however most of our business is with UK based brands. Around 70 per cent of our business is with brands in the UK, with the other 30 per cent being the rest of the world.
Which are your major export markets?
We have worked with brands across most continents, including North America, Africa, Europe, Scandinavia and Australia.
What size is the UK clothing industry and how does it contribute to the economy as a whole?
The UK clothing industry is a huge contributor to our economy, with the value of the industry growing every year in the past 5 years. The industry was worth over £54 million in 2019 and is forecast to grow to be worth over £56.3 million in 2020.
How was Hawthorn conceived?
Hawthorn was conceived as a solution to a problem that we were having in our own clothing brand, one which we started back in 2012. We were struggling to find manufacturers who were based in the UK and could provide us with high quality, fully custom goods, but most importantly who had MOQs which we could work with as a start-up. We worked with some manufacturers but were unsuccessful, so we decided to start our own facility. When we did this, we started to produce items for friends who also had brands, and it then grew to become our main business. We now work with over 300 different clothing brands and businesses.
Where are your manufacturing facilities based?
We have several manufacturing facilities, which are all based overseas. We have chosen locations which are most suitable for each type of product and have extensively developed our supply chain for maximum quality, customisation and efficiency. Our main manufacturing facilities are based in Pakistan, Turkey and China.
What are the most important things you concentrate on at any point of time, to manage customer expectations?
The expectations of start-up brands can be varied, since some of our customers have experience in the fashion industry and some do not. However, we work with our customers to manage their expectations by providing samples and offering revisions if required. The most focused on areas by a customer are usually quality and lead time, so these are things which we always like to concentrate on excelling at.
Our supply chain is extremely agile, since we have set ourselves up to be able to produce fully custom goods. This means we rarely are unable to fulfil a customer request if it falls into our areas of specialism. To ensure our customers are fully aware of the processes during production, we keep them updated via email and telephone and always send images throughout so that they are aware of the manufacturing stages.
What makes Hawthorn one of UK's leading clothing manufacturers? What is the market standing of the company?
We offer the lowest minimum order quantity for fully custom goods in the industry, meaning that we have positioned ourselves as the number one choice for start-up brands. As Hawthorn was formed as a result of not being able to find anyone who could produce low quantities for our own brand, this ethos of high quality, low quantity clothing has always been at the forefront of everything that we do.
What is your annual production capacity both for denim and casualwear? Which segment contributes more to your sales and why?
Denim and casualwear are both extremely popular products for us, but casual wear contributes to the majority of our sales. The reason for this is that casual wear includes such a broad spectrum of clothing, including things like tee shirts, polo shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies and tracksuits. All of which are extremely popular with the brands we work with who are generally start-ups, who are looking for an accessible way to start a clothing brand.
Is Brexit or the US-China trade war having any major impact on the clothing industry of UK?
Although Brexit has been on the horizon since the 2016 referendum, the industry has continued to grow steadily in the UK. Whether or not there are any ramifications now that we have left the EU, and are in the transitional period remains to be seen however, but the industry has had enough time to prepare for this and most retailers and brands have made contingency plans to reduce the impact. The US-China trade war doesn't seem to be having much of an impact just yet from our side of the industry, but anything which affects worldwide supply chains like this needs to be monitored closely which we will continue to do.
In terms of HR, how easy or difficult is it to get the right skill sets? What is the help/ initiatives at the government/ private level to impart the necessary skills and lure new talent?
As our manufacturing takes place overseas, our experience of recruitment for talented individuals has been limited to designers. There are many aspiring designers in the UK, and this means there is no shortage of talent when required. There are many fashion universities in the UK, and these are popular with those who want to move in to working in the industry.
What are the advantages of getting clothes manufactured by Hawthorn?
We offer full package production (FPP) manufacturing, with low minimum order quantities. Most FPP factories have MOQs which are in the hundreds, or even the thousands per design, but we have positioned ourselves to be able to produce just 50 per design. This means that brands can benefit from fully custom items, including custom fabrics and sizing, and for the same investment that they might make with another manufacturer, they can get a much wider product range with us.
The clothing industry is highly competitive - how do you keep up with the competition?
We're constantly introducing new initiatives to ensure we stay ahead of the competition, but one that we are most proud of is our sustainability drive over the last few years. Whereas most manufacturers are only able to offer organic cotton at very high MOQs due to the extra costs involved in farming it, we have developed a supply chain which has enabled us to produce garments from this material from just 75 units per design.
Going forward, how do you want to expand your business?
We have established ourselves as a start-up specialist, however there are many other industries who could benefit from the services we provide. We already work with several larger brands, but in the future, we plan to work with more of these to expand into new areas. (PC)
Published on: 07/02/2020
DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.
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