Sourcing Tours

East meets West at the COTTON USA Thailand Buyers Tour

Seeking out suppliers and finding quality textile and apparel products, in new or unfamiliar markets, can often be complicated and time-consuming. That's why the COTTON USA Buyers' Tours, which help to simplify the sourcing process for buyers, have become so popular and successful over the last few years.

Twenty-seven global buyers and retailers from the US and six countries in Europe and Asia joined COTTON USA Supply Chain Marketing Buyers' Tour to Southeast Asia held in Bangkok, Thailand, with the group meeting with U.S. cotton textile and apparel suppliers from across Southeast Asia.

As with previous COTTON USA tours organised by Cotton Council International, which have visited countries such as China, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, this latest one took much of the hard work out of finding suppliers by giving buyers the chance to make direct contact with leading manufacturers of U.S. cotton rich products and also to visit their factories. To ensure a broad range of sourcing options, thirty-nine COTTON USA licensees, with production facilities in five countries in the ASEAN region, met with the buyers in Bangkok.

Peter Hevicon, the General Manager of the Far East Office at Debenhams explained: "The COTTON USA tours act as a great time-saving exercise for the sourcing process. This latest tour provided fresh opportunities to meet with suppliers from across Thailand and Southeast Asia in one place. We were able to engage directly with suppliers that could meet our specific requirements on quality and quantity. The thorough schedule of mill, factory and showroom visits was incredibly useful – providing direct insight into the workings of potential business partners."

The Buyers' Tour to Thailand incorporated a briefing session explaining the benefits of sourcing from the ASEAN region, a two-day trade fair and tours to fabric and garment manufacturing facilities located on the outskirts of Bangkok.

Denise Johnson, Brand Controller at Alexon Group, certainly found the tour useful, commenting: "We found the COTTON USA tour to be extremely professional and very informative. Having the opportunity to meet suppliers for both cloth and garments all in one place made the whole sourcing experience so much easier. The factory and showroom visits were very focused which we found very useful as we were sourcing a very specific product which we may have found through COTTON USA!"

The event provided opportunities for overseas buyers to meet the entire supply chain in one location. Suppliers of cotton yarn, knit fabrics and apparel and woven fabrics and apparel suppliers from across the ASEAN region gathered at the CCI event to streamline the sourcing process and reinforce long-term business for retailers, manufacturers and the cotton industry alike.

For more information about this tour - please email sthiers@cotton.org