Why is everything so hard to get?

Supply chain issues are the current topic of the moment. Not rugby, not politics, not the weather, getting stuff is the biggest problem right now—stuff like cars, furniture, chemicals, and Christmas presents.  

Sure, Covid is to blame for starting this cycle off, but it's much wider than that now as well. When Covid first hit, the world's factory (China) ground to a halt as factories everywhere closed down when staff were sent home. Then as the rest of the world got locked down and China re-opened, it was a shortage of containers that mucked supply up. Despite seeing containers everywhere, there is simply just not enough of them around. 

Then in more recent times, China's issues have become power supply. With geo-political tensions between China and Australia, the sourcing of coal from Australia has dropped off. As many of our suppliers lament, there's now not enough power available to keep all their factories going. Power is rationed, and sometimes this means factories can only run 2 or 3 days (if that) per week. That makes it hard for any company to remain viable, and some companies are simply closing their doors as they cannot cope with the situation. That's not only clothing factories but also fabric manufacturers and dyers, making it harder to get our garments made on time. 

Then there are freight issues. Traditionally we used to allow 1 NZ Dollar per garment for sea freight from the East. It's now up to $3 per garment and takes three times as long. That's not including airfreight or couriers, which we use for samples. Once again, we used to allow about one month more or less for our shipments to travel to NZ, and now that has stretched out to three months sometimes.  

And to cap it all off, raw material prices are rising as well, making garments more expensive to produce. Cotton prices are at a 3-year high, and Polyester (a by-product of oil) is also creeping up again. The volatile USD-NZD relationship adds to the difficulty of managing these increases - as is keeping up the "trick" of not running out of stock. Managing stock is much harder than anyone might suspect due to the different sizes, colours and styles offered. To provide a client with 100 garments, we have to have about 200 in stock as we never know what sizes will be required from their uniformed staff. 

We have had to think further ahead and beef up our stocks to cope with this pressure – so we can ensure our customers we won't run out of any sizes, styles or colours. That all costs money to fund, and bank interest is rising too.  

At Arrow we have been at pains for some years to spread our risk of supply issues to safeguard against these pressures. It's not that we saw any of these current issues coming, more just keeping our options open should such exigencies arise. A famous WW2 General Douglas MacArthur once said "Security is the ability to supply" and this maxim is what has governed our own approach to how we source and from where and when. 

The Arrow Uniforms supply team have established extensive networks to enable us to shift relatively seamlessly between factories and between countries for production. We set rigorous garment specifications and police them to ensure "uniformity", so whether the uniform is made in China, Vietnam, Fiji, India, Sri Lanka or anywhere else, when you try two garments on you won't notice any difference in the garment. Some of these relationships go back many years, so it's easy for us to allocate production to where it is best suited. We don't have to worry about any ethical issues as these have been long sorted previously. 

And if all else fails, we can make it here in New Zealand in our very own factory. Being WELL MADE IN NEW ZEALAND is something we are very passionate about and glad to still offer as an option.

That being said, when you see the couriers struggling, stores running out of stock, and delivery dates blown out with your holiday shopping – take it easy it’s affecting everyone. We're all facing the same pressures, so think ahead and think strategically! Talk to us!

Des Ford