STA Summer Marketing Forum – Part 1 of 2
EXPLORING
the changing face of retail, brands and U.S. manufacturing
Posted August 25, 2015
By Devin Steele (DSteele@eTextileCommunications.com)
BELMONT, N.C. – The Southern Textile Association (STA) organized what could perhaps best be described as a dynamic and diverse program in its annual Summer Marketing Forum here this month.
More than 100 industry professionals were on hand for the conference, under the theme “The Changing Face of Retail and Brands in the Americas,” which took place at Gaston College’s Textile Technology Center-Kimbrell Campus. Presentations covered topics ranging from shopping demographics and habits to reshoring to attracting talent to trade legislation.
In introducing the program, STA President Todd Weymss of Glen Raven Custom Fabrics, Norlina, N.C., reported that the association continues to grow and now has around 500 members, reflecting the industry’s upward trend line in the U.S. And speaker Alasdair Carmichael, Americas president of PCI Fibres and a board member of the Synthetic Yarns and Fibers Association (SYFA), responded positively to that news during his opening remarks.
“Rewind 10 years: Where were we in the association business and in the industry then?” Carmichael asked. “Who could conceive that STA would have 500 members and the SYFA would have about 150 members? There are a lot of new faces coming in, and I think that’s the most encouraging part.”
Today, in part 1 of our coverage, we’ll focus on two presentations.
Manufacturing in U.S.: ‘hand-to-hand warfare’
Michael Penner, president & CEO of Quebec-based PEDS Legwear, was one of two speakers who talked about the manufacturing movement back to America. In recent years, the company, founded in 1934 and formerly known as Richelieu Legwear, developed a strategic plan to create American jobs – and it has been quite a ride, he said.
“We are in a very mature industry fighting in a global field,” he said. “If you like Six Flags, taking risks and encountering thrills, then manufacturing in the United States will deliver that. This is hand-to-hand warfare. It’s like having a knife fight in a phone booth.”
Dr. Jane Boyd Thomas, Winthrop University
Michael Penner, president & CEO of PEDS Legwear
STA President Todd Weymss of Glen Raven Custom Fabrics
Dr. Jane Boyd Thomas, Winthrop University
But since becoming a “committed member of the Made in America initiative” in 2014, PEDS has enjoyed early success – but it is an ongoing process, Penner said. The company gained a foothold in the American market through the acquisition of International Legwear Group and the opening of a state-of-the-art, $16 million manufacturing facility in Hildebrand, N.C. The project is expected to result in the creation of 205 jobs by the end of 2018, he said. PEDs also entered into a strategic partnership with Gerber Childrenswear LLC in another step to achieve its objectives, he added.
Penner provided a brief history that led to the company’s decision to create U.S. manufacturing jobs. In 2004, the company closed its domestic manufacturing doors and became an offshore manufacturer as it tried to compete against cheap imports, he said. During that period, manufacturers went from country to country seeking the lowest-cost goods, cheap labor and subsidized industries.
Unifi Inc.'s Jim Ciccone (L), chairman of STA's Summer Marketing Forum for several years, is presented a token of appreciation for his service by forum moderator Jim Booterbaugh of National Spinning Co.
“China was the place in its heyday,” he said. “And next it may be Vietnam. And maybe they’ll be making it on the moon later or perhaps they’ll be making it with robots – but the theme is still the same. With trade deals like TPP (the Trans-Pacific Partnership), obviously it facilitates that movement, which might bring lower prices to the consumer. But is that always helping American jobs and the American economy? I think over the last five to 10 years, there have been advantages in the U.S., especially here in North Carolina.”
A number of factors have created those advantages, he said, including rising labor costs in China, higher transportation prices and less-expensive energy in the U.S., he said.
“A lot of credit should go to the guys and gals here who kept their companies in business,” he said. “If you were not still here, this resurrection, this Phoenix Rising, would never have been possible.”
So the company decided to shift its focus to America – specifically to North Carolina, with a reservoir of skilled talent living in the epicenter of sock manufacturing, Penner said.
“We were able to look at what we had done before and ask, ‘how can we do it better now?’ ” he said. “And there was a variety of reasons. Machinery was incredibly important. The type of yarn, the type of fabrication, all those things, make differences. There’s not one reason that gives you 100 percent justification to reshore jobs in America. I like to think of it as 101 reasons, taken together, that make a difference.
“So we bought the best machinery and secured the best yarn suppliers and the best packaging suppliers,” he continued. “But the big difference was the people, the experience, the knowledge, to be able to do. That was the separating factor."
If you take all the same factors and moved them to Nevada or Michigan or Florida, forget about it. This is the land of milk and honey. We had the experience. We had the knowledge to be able to make this here better than anywhere else. So it works in the Carolinas. There is an institutional knowledge of how to make things work and how to make textiles and apparel here that nobody else has.”
Penner called the Carolinas “Ground Zero” for the textile reshoring movement.
“This village has come through a huge trauma together,” he said. “And being led into this family, our company has been able to ramp up the factory and get the people who know boarding, know dyeing, know sewing, know knitting – that is the competitive advantage, more than anything else.”
He concluded: “Use this village that you live in, that you know, and use the brains and entrepreneurialism and resourcefulness that Americans have and may not realize they have. And realize that in other parts of the world, people aren’t encouraged to find solutions and not to take no for an answer. That go get ’em attitude is what made America successful and what will make made in America successful.”
Retailing: Past, present and future
Dr. Jane Boyd Thomas, professor of Marketing at Winthrop University, Rock Hill, S.C., kicked off the program with a compelling look at retailing’s past, present and future, specifically around shopping habits and engagement tools used by three generations of women: Baby Boomers (Jan), Millennials (Sarah) and Generation Edge (Ava). All are different but share similarities, she said.
“Jan grew up watching TV, being on the phone, listening to a boom box,” said Thomas, a regular on HuffPost Live. “She is a product of ‘the mall.’ That’s where she got fashion ideas.
“Sarah is the first generation to grow up having computers taught in classroom. Technology is part of her world. She lives in a ‘four-screen world’ – a phone, a tablet, a TV and a computer. Some have a fifth screen, a smart watch. She interacts with all of these screens simultaneously. She likes to shop, too. She was watching cable TV as a child. She began to embrace brands in a new way. She also embraces online shopping. They are what we call the ‘omni-channel generation’ – cross-shoppers. They’re also the ‘selfie generation.’ They take a picture of themselves and send it out, asking ‘how does this look on me?’
“Born around 2000, Ava is resistant, realistic and resourceful,” she continued. “She’s known for her individual style. She embraces technology and is not loyal to brands. She says, ‘just give me what I want, when I want it and how I want it.’”
In catering to today’s consumer needs, retailing consists of the four C’s, Thomas said: content, community, collaboration and channels. An offshoot of this mantra is what she called “boundary-less retailing.” This means retailers live in consumers’ one-, two-, and four-screen worlds, they’re apt to hyper-experimenting, constantly identifying ways to incentivize the consumer and create brand loyalty and continually creating, telling and sharing a story, she said.
Thomas went on to provide a number of examples of how retailers are creating are creating the “experience” for consumers.