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SGMA reports 25 percent sales drop
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Posted on Mar 09 2006
Sales from apparel factories in Saipan continued to drop in early year shipments to U.S. department stores and retailers, according to James C. Lin, chairman of the Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association.
February sales registered only $42.2 million, a 25 percent decline from February last year. Sales for the last five months have totaled $240 million, down 27 percent from the same five months in the prior year’s sales of $328 million.
Lin said that order volume drops and declining unit sale prices have combined to put tremendous pressure on the 18 remaining Saipan factories. This is the result of more advantageous trade agreements afforded foreign countries that did not exist a decade ago.
“We have lowered our prices, we have changed the styles we manufacture, we have switched to more profitable categories of production where tariffs on foreign countries are higher so we still have a little edge, but we are exhausting our options quickly,” said Lin.
Many of the remaining manufacturers on Saipan have operations in other countries like China, Korea, Mexico, Central America, Jordan, the Philippines, and Vietnam. Most of those countries have free trade agreements with the United States, and Vietnam is on a fast track to become a member of the World Trade Organization, which would eliminate quota restrictions into the United States entirely.
SGMA and other factories on Saipan have recently assisted CNMI administrative offices in surveying all apparel plants on employment, sales, trends, costs and other production data to assist the Commonwealth government in addressing the continued viability of the firms through federal and local initiatives.
Saipan’s first factory, Commonwealth Garment Manufacturers, Inc., shipped Maria Kim sweaters to New York in 1983. Almost every brand name sold by retailers in America has placed orders in the factories, and many continue to do so today: The GAP, The Limited, Abercrombie and Fitch, JC Penneys, Sears, Polo, Ralph Lauren, Jones of New York, Talbots, DKNY, Calvin Klein, Phillip Van Huesen, Gymboree, Cutter & Buck, St. Johns Bay, Nautica, Nordstroms, Liz Claiborne, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Anne Klein and Tommy Hilfiger. (PR)
