School uniform manufacturers in a fix

Coimbatore: The coronavirus lockdown has massively disrupted production and delivery of garment manufacturers, who supply readymade uniforms to private schools.
When the lockdown hit them in March, uniform production was at its peak and several manufacturers had sourced fabric from mills, and had started making uniforms. Now, with no means to deliver the finished products and get payments, and also no way to pay the mills that supplied fabric, they are stuck. The whole supply chain, including mills, tailoring units and logistics, has been hit.
Yeshwanth Yogendran, a partner of the city-based Advanced Clothing Concepts, which designs and manufactures uniforms for as many as 180 schools across South India, said the firm had sourced raw materials when the lockdown was announced. “We had started stitching uniforms by April. Now, we are not able to deliver them. Annual business worth around 10 lakh pieces of uniform garments is at stake,” he said.
Rahul Ranka, a partner of Harshavardhan Garments that supplies uniforms to schools and industries, said the firm is stuck between the mills that had supplied fabric and schools that had placed orders. “Mills that supplied materials after the lockdown relaxation are demanding payment. We can get payment from schools only on delivering uniforms. As the schools are not able to receive deliveries and not able to pay, we don’t have funds to pay the mills,” he said.
Owners of tailoring units to whom uniform manufacturers outsourced stitching, said they were unable to pay their tailors and are struggling to retain them. R Saravanan, who runs a tailoring unit, caters to manufacturers of readymade school uniforms. Last year, he had 40 tailoring machines and produced 30,000 uniform pieces. This year, he doubled the production capacity but the lockdown threw a spanner in the works.
“If schools were open, we would be busy working. But with no activities this year, there is no fund flow and we are struggling to engage our workers. We have to retain them or they would go in search of other jobs and we would have to face manpower shortage once schools reopen,” Saravanan said.