Leading shirt-maker shifts to Vietnam
(VOV) - TAL Group, one of the world’s biggest producers of menswear, is turning to the Vietnamese market due to rising labour cost in China.
The Hong Kong-based group provides its products to many famous brands such as Brooks Brothers, L.L.Bean, Eddie Bauer, and Burberry. One out of every six dress shirts sold in the US comes from a TAL Group factory.
TAL Chief Executive Officer Roger Lee said Vietnam accounts for only 12-15% of its total production, but the percentage may grow to 25% in the next two years.
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Lee affirmed TAL is finding ways to reduce its reliance on Chinese workers who make up around one-third of production. However, he said, this proportion will drop in the future.
The TAL Group leader revealed labour costs in China’s Guangdong province have risen 15-20% over the last five years.
Bloomberg cited the movement of TAL Group to Vietnam as a positive response of investors to the Southeast Asian market and vivid evidence of investors growing trend of doing business in the country.