Sourcingmöjligheter ? en jämförelse mellan den portugisiska och kinesiska
The lifecycle of fashion products get shorter and shorter. Companies in the fashion business needto make sure that they can offer their customers the right products, in the right quantity at theexact right time. The competition on the fashion market today is tough and if companies aregoing to be successful they need to have access to the most reliable suppliers, and also offer theircustomers products with high quality to attractive prices. It is therefore of highest importance toevaluate and choose the right sourcing strategy. Product category and type of organisation aresome of the factors that will determine which strategy that is most appropriate. The purpose withthis study is to investigate the possibilities for Swedish fashion brands to source from thePortuguese and the Chinese supplier markets. Based on selected theories and empirics we havedetermined the advantages and disadvantages for a Swedish company with small quantities andfocus on design on both markets. Since we had the opportunity to visit a Portuguese sourcingcompany the main focus will be on Portugal in this study.We have used a hermeneutic perspective in our study and have alternated between theory andempirics. We have been working close to our objects of the study and tried to put our results intoa bigger perspective to be able to get a greater understanding for the subject. Our empirics arebased on the interviews we made at the Portuguese sourcing company and at their sister companyin Gothenburg. The theory and empirical materials have been analysed and our conclusions arebased on these results.Our conclusion is that both the Portuguese and Chinese supplier market can be a good alternativefor Swedish fashion brands with small quantities and focus on design. Both markets havedifferent advantages and disadvantages regarding supplier performance such as price, quality,flexibility and lead times. We think that the selection of supplier market should be based uponorganizational and product issues like volume and the importance of design.