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As the world shuts down, so are fashion’s fragile supply chains.
Retailers’ sales are plummeting with stores closures in place to slow the rapid spread of COVID-19, manufacturers are fielding daily cancellations from those retailers, and the calamity is forcing contingency measures that could see supply chains unable to successfully resurface once global order is restored.
In short, the distress surrounding fashion’s sprawling supply chains is outsize.
H&M, Zara, Mango, Primark, Macy’s and J.C. Penney are just some of the apparel players that have reportedly halted production, leaving vendors at a loss for next steps—and others in the supply chain at risk of losing their jobs as the evaporating orders will see some factories hard pressed to pay their workers.
When a company of H&M’s scale pauses production, the reverberations will likely be felt industry wide.
“This is an extraordinary and rapidly changing situation. H&M Group is working extensively across business functions to manage the situation in the best possible way,” H&M told Sourcing Journal Wednesday. “As a consequence of the substantial drop in global demand, we are now carefully scrutinizing and evaluating how to adjust and mitigate negative effects, both from a cost and risk perspective.”
On Tuesday, H&M announced that it would temporarily close all of its stores in the U.S. and Germany, two of its key markets, as well as all stores in Canada, Portugal and Belgium. These closures follow the retailer’s Monday announcement...