Fashion manufacturers – which include makers of shoes and Accessories – saw the fourth-largest jump in sales revenue out of all 12 manufacturing categories analyzed. It saw the second highest increase in PO.
According to a report by Unleashed, UK small and medium-sized firms saw their average sales increase by 128 percent in the third quarter of 2024, while the number of purchase orders placed with suppliers also increased by 123 percent. Fashion manufacturers – which include makers of shoes and Accessories – saw the fourth-largest jump in sales revenue out of all 12 manufacturing categories analyzed.
Revenues and POs across the manufacturing sector both increased by 88 percent – indicating high confidence among consumers, retailers and other businesses.
Textile manufacturers are buying more inventory in anticipation of further orders as consumer confidence in the third quarter of 2024 has reached its highest level in five years and is down minus 7.9 percent.
Social media is a big driver for sales and 42 percent of consumers will buy fashion goods through it in 2023. The trends of Instagram, Facebook and TikTok are also influencing fashion buyers.
The average number of purchase orders placed per quarter by UK manufacturers increased to 322 in Q3 2024, from 171 in Q2 2023 and 262 in Q3 2023.
Lead days – measured as the time between placing a purchase order and the goods arriving at the destination warehouse – remains short in the UK, pointing to overall supply chain health.
“Companies are buying more inventory – and although this may bring back bad memories of the post-Covid disruption, when manufacturers were forced to adopt a ‘just in case’ strategy – this is actually a positive sign in the current environment Is. Lead times remain short, so the orders we currently see flowing through the supply chain show really strong business confidence,” said Joe Llewellyn, general manager of cloud ERP at The Access Group, parent company of Unleashed. Said.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)
