These problems caused by the pandemic, among other things, have an impact on Romania’s textile production, as some plants in this country work exclusively for UK brands. In all, more than 50 local apparel and footwear plans risk losing all orders and 10,000 employees risk losing their jobs because of that.
The plants include Alison Hayes’ and Oztasar’s, some of the largest in Romania, as well as smaller ones. The impact varies with production facility size.
“The plants working for British brands are now facing serious problems, cut the number of employees and are even thinking of closing up shop in 2021 due to the lack of orders. UK had a lot of brands that had their collections made in Romania. The textile market is reeling from those bankruptcies and insolvencies (Debenhams and Arcadia i.e.), and the effects of the Brexit even more,” says fashion designer Irina Schrotter, who owns two textile plants herself.
Romania was one of the main suppliers of the Debenhams group, as about 4% of its stores were ‘Made in Romania’, according to the latest available data. Debenhams has recently announced it will close its last remaining stores after talks to find an investor failed.
The Arcadia group, the owner of Topshop, Topman, Dorothy Perkins, Wallis and Miss Selfridge had 50 plants in Romania among its 1,000 partner plants. The UK group filed for insolvency and its future is uncertain.
“Our production and exports have significantly decreased due to the pandemic. As we had purchasing and manufacturing experience and know-how, we started making disposable surgical masks (for adults and kids), N95 masks and medical gowns,” Alison Hayes officials told ZF a few months ago.
Alison Hayes is but one textile manufacturer to have experienced problems due to the pandemic, though there are definitely more.
“The entire textile market is deeply affected by the pandemic; it feels and will continue to feel the effects. Consumer spending is down everywhere in Europe, and local manufacturers of clothing and footwear mainly export to the EU. Retail has fallen on hard times and in Italy, for instance, 50% of such businesses are closed,” Irina Schrotter added.
Romania makes clothing, yarn and footwear worth 22 billion lei (EUR4.4 billion) or 2% of its GDP a year. The industry accounted for some 1.3% to 1.4% of the total revenue of the local business sector in 2019. In all, it numbers more than 10,000 companies.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)