C
18-77
SS 8/78
Mr W Johnston
Cr 313
Reference
CC
Mr Muir
bl
MR PARKINSON'S "TEXTILE MISSION "80" TO HONG KONG
You sent me a copy of a minute from Mr Bryant about the follow-up to the textile mission of 1980 to Hong Kong. There are two aspects to this, namely what the DOT has done and what the industry has done.
It is always difficult to check what companies have done about market research put into their hands. We do know, however, that not one textile firm has called on Mr March in Hong Kong since the Mission. Miss Lydia Dunn's remarks referred.
I believe to the lack of attention which she thinks has been paid by our companies to the Hong Kong garment manufacturers over the last twelve months, in spite of all the efforts of the DOT and Hong Kong Trade Development Council.
The follow-up action by DOT has been generally applauded as thorough and persistent which was acknowledged publicly by Mr March during his visit to the UK this summer. The lessons learned from this follow-up action explain in part what the industry decided to do in 1981.
After the Mission, a mission report containing a full market report, and specific advice from the Hong Kong manufacturers about where the UK's best chances lay was circulated widely in the UK. Following this CRE4 contacted some of the major UK Garment makers and retailers to ask them to take part at Mr Parkinson's request in an cxercise on competitiveness, that is, to allow a selected number of textile companies to submit prices, pared down to the maximum competitiveness, for a range of basic textiles. This took a little time and the outcome was extremely disappointing to our textile people because they found they could still be undercut from abroad on every one of the lines. The thought of setting up an Inward Mission from Hong Kong to the UK was therefore shelved for 1981. Interest was kept alive by MPT as long as possible through a series of meetings held by Mr Parkinson and the original Mission team of top textile businessmen who accompanied him to Hong Kong in September, 1980, to discuss what else might be done.
In the Spring of 1981 it was learned by the Hong Kong Trade Advisory Group that 84 Hong Kong garment manufacturers had for the first time been alloted space in the Paris Pret à Porter Exhibition which is held at the same time and place as the Premiere Vision Show for textiles and is one of the greatest annual events in the Paris Exhibition calendar.
CRE/4 working with the Hong Kong Trade Development Council therefore made plans for Lord Limerick to go to Paris at that time accompanied by some members of the Hong Kong Trade Advisory Group and me, to visit the Exhibition and for a number of joint events to be arranged, including a series of tours around the UK textile stands by the Hong Kong garment makers. On these tours samples were taken
by K går men & manufactures from our UK textile exhibitors, for making up into garments on a trial basis. I do not now the outcome but some companies expect
that the autumn shows should reveal some results.
The best chances lie, however, in the top end of the textile industry, as Hong Kong is going up market' to make the most of her quotas. Top quality woollen. fabrics in particular but also yarns and novelty knitted fabrics all have opportuniti
COMMERCIAL IN CONFTRENCE
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.