Still, successfully transplanting a homegrown fashion brand to Montenegro and Oman presents more challenges than enticing Canadian women to purchase frozen peas and patterned tunics during their weekly shopping trips. The trick will be to customize the brand for different cultures and markets without losing the key component of its identity: basic, basic, basic.
Also, it was able to secure some first-class real estate. Retail hours revolve around daily prayer sessions, of which there are five, so business shuts down each time for roughly half an hour.
And because of the blazing heat, stores are open much later, providing an opportunity for families to socialize in an air-conditioned setting. Loblaw president and executive chairman Galen G. Achieving a seamless move on an international scale is rife with potential snags, says Kaileen Millard-Ruff, a retail expert and director of national retail operations with the Ontario consumer-marketing firm OSL.
The partners suggest specific cities and locations within the countries, a task that Grauso says is one of the toughest. Photos, Sian Richards.
Horn and Co. Climate is an obvious factor in deciding which clothing gets shipped when and where, particularly when there are stores in both Egypt and Serbia. But even between the most geographically disparate stores, Mimran estimates, the inventory of clothing and accessories differs by only about 15 percent. Owing to issues of religious modesty, in Saudi Arabia, any exposed skin in advertisements is pixelated. In an email Friday, a spokesperson for the retailer's parent, Loblaw Co.
The eight-storey Rana Plaza collapsed last April killing 1, Bangladeshi garment workers and injuring 2, more. Some of those workers were making clothes for Joe Fresh, and its brand-name pants were found in the rubble.
But Loblaw, which had initially refused to discuss its sourcing volumes, says that is not the case. This year, Loblaw Co. Labour activist groups say that brands like Loblaw should not stop sourcing from Bangladesh, but do have a responsibility to improve working conditions in factories there. Since then, Loblaw has become the only Canadian company to sign a legally-binding international accord that ensures fire safety and structural inspections will be done on all the factories that it uses.
Loblaw has also said it would provide long-term compensation to the victims and their families of the Rana Plaza collapse. Bob Jeffcott , a labour rights activist with the Maquila Solidarity Network, says that Loblaw has made some short term fixes in Bangladesh, and that their overall business model is still about making clothing cheaply and quickly. Natalie Erb, 24, shops at Joe Fresh at least once a week for everything from yoga clothes to office wear, she said.
The news out of Bangladesh has the loyal customer disturbed about her purchases. Joe Fresh parent company Loblaw TSX:L released a statement Thursday saying some Joe Fresh items were made in the factory and offered its condolences to the victims and their families.
The company said it requires vendors to ensure products are being manufactured in a socially responsible way, prohibiting child harassment, abuse and forced labour, as well as ensuring fair pay, benefits and health and safety standards. Spokeswoman Julija Hunter said the standards are audited on a regular basis and align with those of the industry around the world. NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar said most Canadians were shocked when they saw the working conditions in Bangladesh.
Worker Rights Consortium, a labour-rights monitoring organization, first circulated a photo of a Joe Fresh label amid the rubble in Bangladesh. But there are costs to those low prices, he said.
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