Case Study - 1st quarter 2010

A major national retailer contacted AAPN with several sourcing projects. It was for one of their own private label brands.

For reasons of social responsibility and balanced sourcing, they wanted to source from the Western Hemisphere, including and especially the U.S. They wanted to source factory direct, no agent, no middleman. They knew what they were doing.

They were specific about what fiber they wanted, what yarn, data on the fabric and the trim, capabilities in the factory. They were willing to accept responsibility for processes and investments that would give them true speed to market – raw materials, pre-approved supply chain vendors, commitment to logistics, costing exercises, approvals, details, and more.

They contacted AAPNetwork because of our experience in and network of apparel supply chains in the Western Hemisphere. Before calling us, they went through:
...networks of their own
...word of mouth
...purchased reports from data mining.
...their own inventory of vendors who had contacted them
...the overseas arm of several sourcing organizations
...and finally us at AAPNetwork

In their own words, they described the challenge of finding factories today this way, “we want and need to have some sort of system or rating in place for factories and mills that shows quickly and easily how that company does business. That becomes increasingly important with the emphasis on transparent supply chains...... There are no sourcing shows out there that really service the needs of production. There never has been. So here is the question - how do you find vendors and factories that meet your criteria.”

We are an answer to that question.

AAPNetwork is the way this high volume customer found factories for this specific project. We sent them a list of members and they narrowed it from there. We had most of the information they needed in our database of members – company, history, flexibility, product development, location, capacity, certifications, specialties, fabrics, full package, embellishment, technology, logistics, and more.

We do not publically display detailed information about our member’s customers, financials, and other confidential information which all brands and retailers ultimately require, but we had most of the information needed and available industry-wide on aapnetwork.net.

But that’s not all. We have learned to sell as supply chains, as teams. So we put together a sample team of members including fiber, fabric, trim, logistics, finance, technology and production. We met with the customer. And this meeting became a 100% solution.

Walmart, in their campaign for sustainability, has commented that 8% of their projects can be done in-house but the rest (92%) will be done in their vendors supply chains. The AAPNetwork is a 100% solution.

Benefits
Retailer/Brand: one-stop shopping for accountable, transparent, responsible and compliant producers and their suppliers
Fiber/Yarn/Fabric: full involvement in the sell and production cycle, with factories and retailers, where their value-add is documented and their profile raised
Trim: visibility in product development and full participation is AAPNetwork strategy, target marketing, and industry activities
Factories: no-commission marketing, complete supply chain support, direct calls on brands and private label, differentiation through membership
Logistics/Distribution/Legal: counseling and services to accelerate shipping and cycle times North/South in the region’s supply chain
Finance: direct access to factories, their suppliers and their customers for financial services that secure commerce
Technology: total involvement in meetings and strategies where their innovations can be applied realtime to problem solving