Strategic Sourcing of Fashion Accessories: The China plus-one plan for a pureplay fashion retailer

Ravisson Apparels Pvt ltd (name masked) is a leading pure-play fashion retailer in the Indian fashion retail landscape. Ravisson Apparels Pvt ltd (RAPL) sells a range of products including apparel and lifestyle accessories for men, women and kids. RAPL is sourcing most of its vegan leather handbags from China. This case is based on the challenges faced by the company as it contemplates shifting the manufacturing base of its vegan leather handbags to India. Given the supply chain challenges faced by the company due to COVID-19 in addition to the fact that the “Make-in-India” movement has gained strength among Indian citizens in recent years, RAPL would like to shift at least 80 per cent of its handbag sourcing to India. Currently it sources only around 10-15 per cent of its handbags from Indian suppliers. The company conducts a comparative analysis of Indian and Chinese vendors while thoroughly examining the challenges involved. A team of 10 sourcing managers is formed to study the methodology of reshoring the production of PU handbags to India. A report submitted by the team leads the light on the homework to be done before undertaking this massive change in sourcing strategy. The team compares suppliers from India and China on several parameters including material and trims cost, labour cost, manufacturing cost, overheads, freight and intangible factors like design language, supplier development, etc. The study shows that the answers to the vexing questions the company faces are not so straight forward and many externalities are involved.