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Mouvtex reshuffles sourcing cards

http://www.journaldutextile.com/
Posted on 2017-08-08 by SBK

SANDRINE OSSOLIÈRES has been in the fashion industry for twenty-five years.

And in the light of this valuable experience she has just founded a start-up company which moves into sourcing.

Launched last October the website Mouvtex aims to bring clothing and textile customers and suppliers from across the world together via the Internet.

As a consultant, she has advised groups and ready-made brands such as Celio, Lewinger and Zannier on their collections for a long time. She was brought in to address their production problems. She points out that the facts concerning the latter have changed quickly and countries which were competitive a short time ago, like China, have been knocked off the top spot by new players, including South East Asia, the old information on good countries and manufacturers is extremely hard to come by, especially if they are not attending ad hoc exhibitions and visiting rising zones. From their point of view, the current data bases are insufficient. Because they are too generalised, like the Europages the Europe-wide version of the Yellow Pages. Or are they are confined to a single manufacturing country. "Sometimes there are initiatives on the web but they are usually national,” notes Sandrine Ossolières.

 

“In some countries, there is a cruel lack of information - we couldn’t even get a list of local manufacturers from the embassy,” she states.

Mouvtex, an international company, hopes to fill this gap.
The site is organised into four sections: finding manufacturers, finished products, providers and requesting quotes. More than 460 providers, specialists in threads and fabrics, ready-made clothes, accessories and home linens, from 20 different countries in Asia and Europe have already joined the database.

 

These businesses were approached by Sandrine Ossolières, who has increased her number of foreign trips and has formed partnerships with the relevant public and professional bodies.
Only one French manufacturer has signed up at the moment, but the promoter tells us that she hopes to convince more of them that the “demand exists”.

In order to create a list of ad hoc companies, the providers can select by product type, style (casual, formal), material, manufacturing type (stitch denim) or minimum order.
Once the desired filters have been applied, the ordering party has access to a very detailed information sheet which shows them the businesses which can fulfil their request. This sheet includes: a company profile, factory type, main markets and clients, exhibitions they attend, languages spoken, accepted payment types and currencies, incoterms, a named person to contact and their email address, photos of their factory or of the products they manufacture.
To find finished products, the ordering party go through a similar process, outlining what they would like (product type, material, colour, minimum order, payment method, etc.).
During the set-up process, “providers” list their delivery partners and inspection companies or agencies.

 

With regards to requesting quotes, this is undertaken with a confidential and secure framework.

"We ask brands to register with a user name and password and to fill out a document with the following information: the product concerned (including a sketch or a photo), colours, sizes, quantities, etc.”

Mouvtex ensures that all the necessary details are provided. On the other side, manufacturers receive a request for a quote without knowing who requested it.
The credibility of their response is then checked by Mouvtex.
“If a provider offers a cashmere jumper for €3, we’ll ask them to double check their offer.”

To avoid either party wasting time, the number of quotes is limited to a dozen or a time frame of a month maximum for delivery. The website aims to be as useful as possible and so allows you to set up long distance video-conferences between official bodies or professionals in the supply countries. The latter also provide information published by Mouvtex and where appropriate, may organise site visits to factories.
Since website registration is free to both manufacturers and ordering parties, the business’ economic model is based on advertising.

Around 3000, mainly European, brands have visited Mouvtex, 400 have contacted manufacturers through it and 40 have placed orders.

“Our site can be very useful to young brands which can’t attend exhibitions and trade there, but brands and groups can also prepare or complete the work of sourcing teams.”

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