SUITS MADE IN HONG KONG
CHEAP LABOUR AND FREE PORT
EXPORTERS SEEK N.Z. MARKET
With cheap labour and a free port, Hong Kong is able to offer cheaplymade garments from British fabrics, and one firm of exporters is seeking a New Zealand market. Its letter to New Zealand merchants has come to the notice of the Canterbury Clothing Trade Employees’ Union, the secretary of which (Mr J. Roberts) said yesterday that it showed how price cutting could take place with cheap Asiatic labour.
The Hong Kong company mentioned a report in a Connecticut newspaper: “A young Yale undergraduate is piling up a small fortune by selling suits here which he has made up for him in Hong Kong from British fabrics. Reason for the brisk business is that the student, 19-year-old Shelby Tucker, can sell the suits for about half what they would cost if they were made here because of the comparatively low cost of labour in Hong Kong. After taking a customer’s measurements, Tucker airmails the erder to a tailor in Hong Kong, ano gets the suit in about three or four weeks.”
The article listed but one of the reasons responsible for the “fast development of this venture into a colossal trade,” the exporters said. What made the development pmsible and attractive to manufacturers, wholesalers and department stores abroad was the fact that Hong Kong was a free port, and imported materials were not dutiable.
The exporters said there were large and regular orders pouring in from Japan, South Korea, Okinawa, Guam and the United States. “For you it will bring the added advantage of importing 100 per cent. Empire products,” they said to New Zealand companies. There were considerable stocks of woollen piecegoods available in Hong Kong, and samples could be submitted on request. Alternatively, they offered to accept orders in a choice of materials and designs which could be shipped direct from the Nfcw Zealand companies’ suppliers. The time of make-up in Hong Kong could be estimated at about three days.
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27633, 14 April 1955, Page 12
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336SUITS MADE IN HONG KONG Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27633, 14 April 1955, Page 12
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