NATIONAL: Cooper Watkinson Textiles (CWT) has severed accounts with over 200 customers in an effort to concentrate on larger bulk orders.
The Auckland-headquartered wholesaler has introduced a minimum spend requirement of $10,000 over a 12 month period applicable to all customers. CWT Sydney manager Lisa Stubbs said the minimum was introduced in early 2010 as a result of logistic concerns surrounding the servicing of a large number of small accounts. The reduced willingness and capacity of CWT’s suppliers to fulfil small orders also played a part in the introduction of the $10,000 minimum, Stubbs revealed. 4
Customers with poor payment history have also had their accounts closed, Stubbs said. She estimated a total of over 200 customers across Australia and New Zealand have been affected by account closures.
In a formal statement to Ragtrader, CWT said it would continually review its business model in order to provide “the optimum benefit” to its customers.
“There are times we recognise we cannot provide the full services some small customers require, and in such cases we have encouraged them to work with parties better suited to their required needs,” the statement said.
RMIT University’s program manager of fashion and textiles, Tina Guglielmino, said the imposition of
order minimums added to the many difficulties already facing small fashion businesses.
“They only work on small runs and those sorts of unit limitations will just make it impossible for them to be as creative as what they want to be,” Guglielmino said.
Head teacher of TAFE NSW Sydney Institute’s Fashion Design Studio, Nicholas Huxley, questioned the long-term outcome of CWT’s decision.
“I just think that putting a standard limit is cutting their own throats in a lot of ways... it’ll stop young labels from going there from the start. They might hold on to the customers that have been true, but they’ll lose the young ones.”
CWT said it was committed to supporting emerging designers.
“We... have a strong policy of encouraging andsupporting young designers who have well-supported business plans for their product in the Australian and New Zealand markets.”
Erin O’Loughlin