Letter received from Topshop regarding Fortune Garments
"Many thanks for you letter ... regarding your understanding of Topshop's relationship with the Fortune Garment and Woollen knitting factory in Cambodia.
Whilst it is true that a number of UK retailers have used Fortune Garments for production, including some other of he Arcadia Group brands, I would like to inform you that Topshop have never worked with this unit.
We are aware of each of our factories and are directly involved with them. Topshop has a code of conduct that is monitored and verified independently to ensure we are doing all we can to offer our customers product that has been sourced from and manufactured in Socially Responsible factories.
Topshop do source some product from Cambodia but only from factories registered with the Better Factories Cambodia initiative, developed and maintained by the International Labour Organisation.
We make every effort to work collaboratively with every factory we produce in. Simarly, our suppliers, in turn are committed to working with us to make long term improvements to working, social and environmental conditions within the factories we engage with and the communities they support.
I would like to thank you again for ttaking the time to write to us with your views on this important issue and I hope you will be reassured by the work that Topshop do to offer our customers socially responsible product"
LBL response:
The main points in response to the letter are:
- Topshop labels were found at the Fortune production unit by workers in May last year and in October. Copies of the May labels were sent to us by the union and then forwarded on to Topshop. If Topshop were not sourcing there at that time then either they must have sourced from there at an earlier time, which meant labels were left over from previous production or one of their named suppliers is subcontracting work out. There is no way workers would be able to get hold of these labels other wise.
- Fortune is registered with the better factories project - this in itself does not guarentee decent working conditions, nor does it negate Topshps responsibility to make sure condition at the factory comply with their code of conduct.
- We have no evidence of Topshops commitment to collaborative working - they are rarely willing to engage in dialogue with campaign groups, unions or consumers. They have consistently refused to join the Ethical Trading Initiative. What does 'working collaboratively mean in practice?
- Before we could feel in any way assured of their commitment to socially responsible sourcing. We would need to see more willingness by Topshop to take responsibility for the workers in their supply chain and see more more details and transparency about how they monitor and verify their code of conduct, how and with who they collaborate and how they assess and address the impact of their own purchasing practices.
To see a full copy of the LBL response to Topshop see next page.
LBL response to Topshop
Dear Ms Shepardson,
I am writing in response to letters received from Topshop by a number of LBL supporters regarding the Fortune Garment factory in Cambodia.
As you may know the Fortune case was resolved in April, in part due the the collaborative approach taken by a number of the brands involved. This proved once again what can be achieved when companies, trade unions, suppliers and NGO's work together to improve conditions and resolve issues. In the future we would like to see such cases resolved more quickly and effectively, without having to resort to a public campaign to make it happen. For this reason we would like to respond to some of the points raised in your letter and suggest ways in which Topshop could move forward in its attempts to address workers rights abuses in its supply chain.
Cases such as Fortune will continue to be difficult and time consuming to resolve if companies refuse to take responsibility for conditions in their supply chain or are unwilling to take appropriate action to resolve problems that arise. This is why we are disappointed that Topshop continues to deny that any Topshop products have been made at this factory, particularly given that we forwarded you copies of Topshop labels found by workers at the factory in May last year.
It seems unlikely that Topshop labels would find their way into a factory that had never produced garments for your company. If Topshop is genuinely convinced it has never placed orders at this factory, the other possibility is that your orders are being subcontracted out by your known suppliers to other production units
