1
Design and quality
Realising that there would be no future for it
if it tried to compete on price, the Swedish textile
industry decided to concentrate on selling well-made
and well-designed quality products.
Although the
image of Swedish Design is perhaps getting a trifle
blurred round the edges, it is still a very strong
sales argument in foreign markets and needs no
amplification here.
The Trading pattern
some
The answer to the second question, i.e. why
such a modern and rationalised industry should be
unable to succeed in the domestic market, is very
complicated, but it is inevitably linked to
extent to the question of the trading pattern in
this country. Until competition from the Far East
and European countries began to make itself felt,
Swedish wholesalers and retailers bought what they
If these did not needed from Swedish manufacturers.
.ave what was wanted, buyers would look to
Scandinavian suppliers, and only if they did not
find what they wanted there would they approach
European manufacturers. (This buying pattern
naturally did not affect the purchase of very high
quality products, which at that time were not being
made in Sweden). This meant that by eeping an.
eye on the retail trade, Swedish converters, spinners
weavers and knitters could supply the makers-up with
the necessary materials, the makers-up could count
on assured sales to the wholesalers, who in their
Everything was on turn supplied the retail trade.
cont.