Globalisation and regionalisation in the clothing industry: survival strategies for UK firms

The clothing industry has been globalised quite early, owing to its ease of transportation and its labour intensity. The aim of this paper is to identify survival strategies developed by clothing firms in a globalisation context. The paper uses a value-chain perspective to analyse firms' decisions not as discrete, but as linked to the previous and the following stage in the chain. The strategies followed by the clothing firms, to survive in a context of strong pressure from retailers and from competition from low-wage countries, are a combination of two trends. The first trend is the relocation of production to low-wage countries; the second one is the development of six added-value activities: niche, Quick Response, full package, innovation, branding and retail.